Systems and Methods to Track Regions Visited by Mobile Devices and Detect Changes in Location Patterns based on Integration of Data from Different Sources

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods including computing patterns of visitation to predefined regions by converting coordinates of mobile devices to cell identifiers and searching a database to find matches between cell identifiers representing regions and the cell identifiers of the device locations. Devices having similar visitation patterns are divided into two groups, based on status data of whether or not information about a region has been transmitted to respective users. The visitation patterns after the transmission are compared by a system between the two groups to measure a difference. Identifiers of devices, users, or households are initially provided to the system without the status data to obtain attributes associated individually with the identifiers. In return, the system is provided with the status data associated with the attributes individually for the devices, users, or households but without sufficient information to map the status data individually to the identifiers of the devices, users, or households.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/602,427, filed May 23, 2017 and issued as U.S.Pat. No. 9,967,714 on May 8, 2018, which is a continuation applicationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/165,983, filed May 26, 2016 andissued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,668,104 on May 30, 2017, the entire disclosureof which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

The present application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 9,374,671, issued onJun. 21, 2016, and U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2015/0348095, published onDec. 3, 2015, the entire disclosures of which applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

At least some embodiments of the disclosure relates to data integrationtechniques to assemble location dependent data about users fromdifferent sources while protecting privacy of the users, where thelocation dependent data is generated at least in part via computationalefficient techniques of determination of regions in which mobile devicesof the users are located.

BACKGROUND

A location determination system, such as a Global Positioning System(GPS), allows a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, apersonal media player, a GPS receiver, etc., to determine its currentlocation on the earth. The location of the mobile device is typicallycalculated as a set of coordinates, such as the longitude and latitudecoordinates of a point on the surface of the earth.

However, the location of the mobile device in the form of coordinates ofa point on the surface of the earth does not provide sufficientinformation of interest about the location, such as whether the mobiledevice is within a particular region associated with a set of knownproperties.

For example, it may be of interest in certain applications to determinewhether the location of the mobile device is within the store of amerchant, within the home of the user of the mobile device, within arecreation area, within a commercial district, etc.

For example, U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2014/0012806, published Jan. 9,2014 and entitled “Location Graph Based Derivation of Attributes”,discusses the generation of a user profile based on mapping thelocations of a mobile device to predefined geographical regions and usethe attributes associated with the predefined geographical regions toderive and/or augment the attributes of the user profile.

For example, U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0248815, published Oct. 9,2008 and entitled “Systems and Methods to Target Predictive Locationbased Content and Track Conversions”, discusses the need to analyze thelocation of a mobile device to determine the types of businesses thatthe user of the mobile device typically visits, or visited. When thelocation of a mobile device is within a predefined distance from eitherthe address of a particular business or a geographic location associatedwith the business, or within a geometric perimeter of the particularbusiness location, it may be determined that the user of the mobiledevice was at the particular business.

Ray Casting is a known technology to determine whether a given point iswithin a polygon represented by a set of vertexes. However, Ray Castingis computational intensive involving floating point number computations.

The Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) is a standard used forlocating points on the earth. It uses grid squares of various lengths atdifferent resolutions, such as 10 km, 1 km, 100 m, 10 m, or 1 m,depending on the precision of the coordinates provided. An MGRScoordinate includes a numerical location within a 100,000 meter square,specified as n+n digits, where the first n digits give the easting inmeters, and the second n digits give the northing in meters.

The disclosures of the above discussed patent documents are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows a system to determine whether a mobile device is within aregion having a predetermined geographical boundary according to oneembodiment.

FIGS. 2-4 illustrate a grid system used to determine whether a locationof a mobile device is within the geographical boundary of a regionaccording to one embodiment.

FIGS. 5-7 illustrate a hierarchical grid system used to determinewhether a location of a mobile device is within the geographicalboundary of a region according to one embodiment.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show a top level grid and the identification of cellswithin the grid according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows an intermediate level grid and the identification of cellswithin the grid according to one embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows the identification of cells within a grid having thefinest resolution in a grid hierarchy according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12 shows the method to determine whether a location of a mobiledevice is within the geographical boundary of a region according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of converting the coordinates of alocation to an identifier of a cell and converting the identifier of thecell to the coordinates of a vertex of the cell according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 14 shows a system configured to map a location of a mobile deviceto one or more identifications of regions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 15 illustrates a data processing system according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 16 shows a method of mapping a location of a mobile device to aregion according to one embodiment.

FIG. 17 shows a method to detect differences in location patternsaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 18 shows a method to detect differences in location patterns ofdifferent mobile devices visiting a predetermined region according toone embodiment.

FIG. 19 shows a method to measure the influence of an event based ondifferences in location patterns of mobile devices visiting apredetermined region according to one embodiment.

FIG. 20 shows a method to identify mobile devices having similarpatterns of visiting a predetermined region according to one embodiment.

FIG. 21 shows a method to identify mobile devices having similarpatterns of visiting predetermined regions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 22 shows a method to measure the influence of an event according toone embodiment.

FIG. 23 shows a system to combine the data from different databases tomeasure the influence of an event with privacy protection according toone embodiment.

FIG. 24 shows an operation to obfuscate attribute data for privacyprotection according to one embodiment.

FIG. 25 shows a method to combine data from separate system to measure achange in location patterns according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding. However, in certain instances, wellknown or conventional details are not described in order to avoidobscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in thepresent disclosure are not necessarily references to the sameembodiment; and, such references mean at least one.

One embodiment of the disclosure provides a computationally efficientmethod and system to determine whether a location of the mobile deviceis within a predetermined geographical boundary of a region and/or todetermine, among a plurality of predefined regions, the identity of oneor more regions within which the location of the mobile device ispositioned.

FIG. 1 shows a system to determine whether a mobile device is within aregion having a predetermined geographical boundary according to oneembodiment.

In FIG. 1, a location determination system uses the wireless signals(e.g., 179) transmitted to and/or from the mobile device (109) todetermine the location (111) of the mobile device (109) on the surfaceof the earth.

For example, the location determination system may use GlobalPositioning System (GPS) satellites (e.g., 117) (and/or base stations(e.g., 115)) to provide GPS signals to the mobile device (109). Themobile device (109) is configured to determine the location (111) of themobile device (109) based on the received GPS signals. In general,multiple GPS satellites (e.g., 117) and/or base stations (e.g., 115) areused to provide the wireless signals (e.g., 179) from differentlocations for a GPS receiver to determine its locations.

In FIG. 1, the mobile device (109) is configured with a cellularcommunications transceiver to communicate with the base stations (e.g.,113, 115) of a cellular communications network.

For example, in one embodiment, the mobile device (109) is configured touse signal delays in the cellular communications signals to or from aplurality of cellular base stations (e.g., 113, . . . , 115) to computethe location coordinates of the mobile device (109).

In FIG. 1, a server (187) is configured to communicate with the mobiledevice (109) via the network (189) and the cellular communicationsinfrastructure (e.g., the base station (113)). The server (187) isconnected to a database (181) storing information about the predefinedregions (e.g., 101, 103, . . . 105, 107).

For example, the database (181) is configured to store theidentifications of a set of cells that are within the boundary of aregion (e.g., 101). The server (187) is configured to convert thelocation (111) of the mobile device (109) to a cell identification andsearch the identifications of the set of cells representing the region(101) to determine if the cell identification converted from thelocation (111) of the mobile device (109) is in the set of cellidentifications representing the region (101). If the cellidentification of the location (111) is found in the set of cellidentifications representing the region (101), the location (111) isconsidered being within the boundary of the region (e.g., 101).

In one embodiment, a hierarchical grid system is used to construct cellsthat are within the boundary of the region (e.g., 101). Thus, the numberof cells within the region (e.g., 101) can be reduced, while theprecision of the determination can be selected at a desired level (e.g.,1 meter).

In one embodiment, the identifications of the cells are configured to besigned integer numbers. Thus, any known technologies for searching agiven number within a set of signed integer numbers can be used toefficiently determine whether the cell identifier of a location (111) iswithin the set of cell identifiers of the region (101).

In one embodiment, the conversion of the location coordinates to a cellidentifier is configured for improved computation efficiency. The cellidentifier is also configured for efficient determination of theresolution of the grid in which the cell is located, the coordinates ofthe vertexes of the cell, the bounding boxes of the cell, and theidentifications of the neighbors of the cells. Details and examples areprovided below.

In one embodiment, a given region (e.g., polygon) on earth isrepresented by a set of cells in a hierarchical, regular grid in alongitude latitude space. In the longitude latitude space, the cells areuniform rectangles/squares at a given resolution; the cell identifiesare constructed from the digits of the longitude/latitude coordinatesfor improved efficiency in conversion between coordinates and cellidentifiers. In one embodiment, the resolution levels of the gridscorrespond to the precision of the longitude/latitude coordinates interms of the number of digits used to after the decimal point torepresent the longitude/latitude coordinates.

At a given resolution in the grid, the identity of the cell thatcontains a given point identified by a longitude/latitude pair can becomputed via simple manipulations of the digits of thelongitude/latitude pair, as illustrated in FIG. 13.

FIGS. 2-4 illustrate a grid system used to determine whether a locationof a mobile device is within the geographical boundary of a regionaccording to one embodiment.

In FIG. 2, a grid (121) of cells is used to identify an approximation ofthe region (101) at a given level of resolution of the grid (121). Theresolution level corresponds to the size of the cells in the grid (121).

In FIG. 2, the region (101) is represented as a polygon having a set ofvertexes (e.g., 123). The set of line segments connecting theneighboring vertexes (e.g., 123) of the region (101) defines theboundary of the region (101).

FIG. 3 illustrates the selection of a set of cells (e.g., 127) that areconsidered to be within the boundary of the region (101). Variousdifferent methods and/or criteria can be used to classify whether a cellis within the boundary of the region (101), especially the cells thatare partially in the region (101) and contain a portion of the boundaryof the region (101). The disclosure of the present application is notlimited to a particular way to identify or classify whether a cell thatis within the boundary of the region (101).

For example, a cell may be classified as being with the region (101)when the overlapping common portion between the cell and the region(101) is above a predetermined percentage of the area of the cell.

For example, a cell may be classified as being with the region (101)when a length of one or more segments of the region (101) going throughthe cell is above a threshold.

For example, the vertexes of the region (101) may be mapped to thenearest grid points to determine an approximation of the boundary of theregion (101) that aligns with the grid lines to select the cells thatare located within the approximated boundary of the region (101).

FIG. 4 illustrates the determination of the location (111) within theset of cells (131, . . . , 133, . . . , 139) according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 4, each of the cells (131, . . . , 133, . . . , 139)represents a portion of the region (101). To determine whether thelocation (111) is within the boundary of the region (101), the system isconfigured to determine whether the set of cells (131, . . . , 133, . .. , 139) contains the location (111).

In one embodiment, to efficiently determine whether any of the cells(131, . . . , 133, . . . , 139) contains the location (111), each of thecells (131, . . . , 133, . . . , 139) is assigned a cell identifier. Inone embodiment, each of the cell identifier is a signed integer forimproved computation efficiency; and the cell identifier is configuredin such a way that the coordinates of any location within the cell canbe manipulated via a set of predetermined, computationally efficientrules to provide the same cell identifier, as further illustrated inFIGS. 12 and 13.

In FIG. 4, after the coordinates of the location (111) is converted tothe cell identifier of the cell (133) that contains the location (111),the system determines whether the location (111) is within the regioncorresponding to the set of cells (131, . . . , 133, . . . , 139) bysearching in the cell identifiers of the set of cells (131, . . . , 133,. . . , 139) representative of the region (101) to find a match to thecell identifier of the cell (133) that is converted from the coordinatesof the location (111). If a match is found, the location (111) isdetermined to be within the region (101); otherwise, the location (111)is determined to be outside of the region (101).

To improve the accuracy in the approximation of the region (101) andcomputational efficiency, the cells of a hierarchical grid system isused to approximate the region (101). FIGS. 5-7 illustrate ahierarchical grid system used to determine whether a location of amobile device is within the geographical boundary of a region accordingto one embodiment.

In FIG. 5, grids of different resolutions are used to identify a set ofcells to approximate the region (101). The grids has a predeterminedhierarchy, in which the grid lines of a high level grid aligns with someof the grid lines of a low level grid such that the cells of the lowlevel grid subdivide the cells of the high level grid. The grids ofdifferent resolutions have different cell sizes.

In general, a grid having a higher resolution and thus smaller cell sizecan approximate the region (101) in better precision, but uses morecells.

In one embodiment, the cells from the lower resolution grid is used inthe interior of the region (101) to reduce the number of cells used; andthe cells from the higher resolution grid is used near the boundary ofthe region (101) to improve precision in using the set of cells toapproximately represent the region (101).

For example, in one embodiment, the lowest resolution gird is applied toidentify a set of cells to approximate the region (101). The cells inthe lowest resolution grid that contain the boundary of the region (101)are split in accordance with the grid of the next resolution level toidentify cells in the grid of the next resolution level for improvedprecision in representing the region (101). The cell splitting processcan be repeated for further improved precision using a higher resolutiongrid.

FIG. 6 illustrates the use of cells from two levels of hierarchicalgrids to approximate the region (101).

After the set of cells used to approximate the region (101) areidentified (e.g., as illustrated FIG. 6), the system is configured todetermine whether the location (111) of the mobile device (109) iswithin the region (101) based on whether any of the set of cellsrepresenting the region contains the location (111), in a way asillustrated in FIG. 7.

For example, in one embodiment, each of the cells used in FIG. 7 torepresent a part of the region (101) is provided with a cell identifier.The coordinates of the location (111) is mapped to a cell identifier ata given resolution level. The system is configured to search in the setof cell identifiers of region (101) at the corresponding resolutionlevel to determine whether there is a match to the cell identifier asdetermined from the coordinates of the location (111). If a match incell identifier is found at any resolution level, the location (111) isdetermined to be within the region (101) represented by the set ofcells; otherwise, the location (111) is determined to be outside theboundary of the region (101).

In one embodiment of FIG. 1, a hierarchical grid system is used toapproximate the predefined regions (101, 103, . . . , 105, 106) withcells. Each of the cells is classified/identified as being in one ormore of the regions (101, 103, . . . , 105, 106). The database (181)stores the identifiers of the cells in association with the identifiesof the respective regions (101, 103, . . . , 105, 106); and the server(187) is configured to compute the identifiers of the cells of differentresolutions that contain the location (111) and determine if any of thecell identifiers stored in the database (181) in association with theidentifiers of the regions (101, 103, . . . , 105, 106) has the samecell identifier as the location (111). If a matching cell identifier isfound, the location (111) of the mobile device (109) is determined to bewith the respective region(s) (e.g., 101) associated with thecorresponding cell identifier; otherwise, the location (111) isdetermined to be outside all of the regions (101, 103, . . . , 105, 106)represented by the set of cell identifiers stored in the database (181).

FIGS. 8 and 9 show a top level grid and the identification of cellswithin the grid according to one embodiment.

In one embodiment, the location (111) of the mobile device (109) isdetermined to be on the surface of the earth in terms of the longitudeand latitude coordinates. In a coordinate system as illustrated in FIG.8, the longitude coordinates are configured to be within the range of−180 degrees to 180 degrees; and the latitude coordinates are configuredto be with the range of −90 degrees to 90 degrees.

In one embodiment, a hierarchical grid system on the surface of theearth is based on a regular grid in the longitude latitude spaceillustrated in FIG. 9.

In FIG. 9, the cells in the top level grid have a uniform size of 10degrees in longitude and 10 degrees in latitude. In FIG. 9, the cellsare identified by the row identifiers ranging from −9 to −1 and 1 to 9and column identifiers ranging from 1 to 36.

In FIG. 9, the row and column identifiers are configured in a way toavoid using zero as a row identifier or a column identifier.

In FIG. 9, the row identifier of 1 is assigned to the row of cellsbetween 0 to 10 degrees of latitude; the row identifier of 2 is assignedto the row of cells between 10 to 20 degrees of latitude; etc. The rowsof cells between 0 to −90 degrees of latitudes are assigned similar rowidentifiers with a negative sign. For example, the row identifier of −1is assigned to the row of cells between 0 to −10 degrees of latitude;the row identifier of −2 is assigned to the row of cells between −10 to−20 degrees of latitude; etc. As a result, the row identifier has a signand a single digit for the top level cells illustrated in FIG. 9; andthe single digit is not zero for any of the rows. Thus, for eachlocation that is inside a cell in the top level grid as illustrated inFIG. 9, the row identifier of the cell containing the location has thesame sign as the latitude coordinate of the location and the singledigit that equals to 1 plus the tens digit of the latitude coordinate ofthe location.

In FIG. 9, the column identifier of 1 is assigned to the column of cellshaving longitude coordinates between −180 to −170 degrees; the columnidentifier of 2 is assigned to the column of cells having longitudecoordinates between −170 to −160 degrees; etc. Thus, for each locationthat is inside a cell in the top level grid as illustrated in FIG. 9,the column identifier of the cell containing the location has no sign(e.g., the column identifier is always greater than zero) and one or twodigits that correspond to adding 18 to a number formed by using thehundreds digit of the longitude as the tens digit and the tens digit ofthe longitude as the ones digit.

The combination of the row identifier and the column identifier of acell uniquely identifies the cell within the top level grid asillustrated in FIG. 9. For example, the digits of the column identifiercan be appended to the row identifier to generate a signed number thatuniquely identifies the cell within the grid illustrated in FIG. 9. Fora given cell identifier, the row identifier and the column identifiercan be unambiguously deduced from the cell identifier itself, since therow identifier has a signal digit and a sign. The longitude and latitudecoordinates of the vertexes of the cell can be computed from the rowidentifier and the column identifier.

Although FIG. 9 illustrates a preferred way to code the row identifiersand the column identifiers based on the longitude and latitudecoordinates of the locations within the cells, alternative codingschemes can be used.

For example, the rows can be coded from 1 to 18 for latitudes from −90degrees to 90 degrees; and the columns can be coded from 10 to 45 forlongitudes from −180 degrees to 180 degrees. Thus, both the row andcolumn identifiers are positive integers, while the column identifiersalways have two digits.

For example, the rows can be coded from 11 to 28 for latitudes from −90degrees to 90 degrees; and the columns can be coded from 11 to 46 forlongitudes from −180 degrees to 180 degrees. Thus, both the row andcolumn identifiers are positive integers having two digits.

FIG. 10 shows an intermediate level grid and the identification of cellswithin the grid according to one embodiment. In FIG. 10, a given cell ata higher level grid (e.g., a cell in the top level grid as illustratedin FIG. 9) is subdivided into 10 rows and 10 columns. The coding of therows and columns correspond to the measurement directions of thelongitude and latitudes coordinates such that the corresponding digitsin the longitude and latitudes coordinates at a given precision levelcan be used directly as the row and column identifiers of the sub-cellswithin the cell at the higher level grid.

For example, when the cell that is being subdivided into the 10 rows and10 columns has a size of 10 degrees in longitude and 10 degrees inlatitude (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 9), the row identifier and columnidentifier of the sub-cells correspond to the ones digit of the latitudeand longitude coordinates of the points within the respective sub-cells.

For example, when the cell that is being subdivided into the 10 rows and10 columns has a size of 1 degree in longitude and 1 degree in latitude,the row identifier and column identifier of the sub-cells correspond tothe one-tens digit of the latitude and longitude coordinates of thepoints within the respective sub-cells.

FIG. 11 shows the identification of cells within a grid having thefinest resolution in a grid hierarchy according to one embodiment. InFIG. 11, the row identifiers and column identifiers are padded by 1, incomparison with the row and column coding scheme illustrated in FIG. 10.

In one embodiment, an identifier cell for a given resolution includessufficient information to identify the corresponding cells in the higherlevel grid(s) that contains the cell. Thus, a cell identifier uniquelyidentifies a cell in the entire hierarchical grid without ambiguity.

FIG. 12 shows the method to determine whether a location of a mobiledevice is within the geographical boundary of a region according to oneembodiment.

In FIG. 12, the location (111) of the mobile device (109) is determinedin terms of the longitude coordinate (143) and the latitude coordinate(145).

For a given resolution level (147), the longitude coordinate (143) andthe latitude coordinate (145) are truncated to generate the columnidentifier (149) and the row identifier (151). Applying (155) theresolution level (147) includes truncating the longitude coordinate(143) and the latitude coordinate (145) to the corresponding digits ofprecision to generate the column identifier (149) and the row identifier(151). In one embodiment, the digits corresponding to the top level gridand the bottom level grid at the given resolution are adjusted accordingto FIGS. 9 and 11.

In FIG. 12, the column identifier (149) and the row identifier (151) arecombined to generate the cell identifier (153) of the location (111) ofthe mobile device at the given resolution level (147).

In one embodiment, the database (181) stores a set of cell identifiers(161, . . . , 163) that are associated with the region (101) defined bya predetermined boundary. The server (187) searches (157) the set ofcell identifiers (161, . . . , 163) to find a match with the cellidentifier (153). If a match is found, the location (111) of the mobiledevice (109) is determined to be within the boundary of the region(101).

In one embodiment, the database (181) stores a set of cell identifiers(e.g., 161, . . . , 163, 165, . . . ) associated with respectivedifferent regions (e.g., 101, 103, . . . ). When the cell identifier(153) of the location (111) of the mobile device (109) is found to bematching with a particular cell identifier (e.g., 163 or 165), theregion (e.g., 101 or 103) associated with the particular cell identifier(e.g., 163 or 165) is determined to be the region in which the mobiledevice (141) is located.

In one embodiment, when a cell contains the boundary of two regions(e.g., 101 and 103), the cell identifier of the cell can be associatedwith both regions (e.g., 101 and 103). The system may optionally furtherdetermine which region the cell is in based on the coordinates of thevertexes defining the boundary (or other parameters that define theboundary between the regions).

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of converting the coordinates of alocation to an identifier of a cell and converting the identifier of thecell to the coordinates of a vertex of the cell according to oneembodiment.

In FIG. 13, the location has a latitude coordinate of −51.12345678 and alongitude coordinate of −41.12345678. A resolution at the fifth digitafter the decimal point is applied to the coordinates to generate thetruncated coordinates (−41.12345, −51.12345). The decimal point isremoved to obtain the longitude digits −4112345 and the latitude digits−5112345. Since the length of the equator of the earth is about 40,075km, the cell size near the equator is about 1.11 meters at theresolution corresponding to the fifth digit.

In accordance with the scheme for the top level grid illustrated in FIG.9, the tens digit for the latitude coordinate is padded with one(without considering the sign of the latitude); and the hundreds digitand tens digit, including the sign, of the longitude coordinate ispadded with 18 to generate the row identifier −6 and the columnidentifier 14 for the top level grid.

In accordance with FIG. 10, the row identifiers and column identifiersof the sub-cells in the hierarchical grid correspond to the respectivelatitude digits and longitude digits (1, 1, 2, 3, 4).

In accordance with FIG. 11, the row identifiers and column identifiersof the sub-cells in the bottom hierarchy is padded with 1, if thelongitude and/or the latitude coordinates of the location is not exactlyon the grid lines of the resolution level (e.g., if the longitude orlatitude coordinate has nonzero digits after the fifth digit behind thedecimal point). One is not padded at the last digit when the longitudeand/or the latitude coordinates of the location is exactly on the gridlines of the resolution level (e.g., if the longitude or latitudecoordinate has no nonzero digits after the fifth digit behind thedecimal point). According to this padding scheme, in the northernhemisphere locations on the northern edge of a cell are included in thecell but not the locations on the southern edge. In the southernhemisphere, locations on the southern edge of a cell are included in thecell but not the locations on the northern edges. Locations on theeastern edge of a cell are included in the cell, but not the westernedge.

Thus, the location (−41.12345678, −51.12345678) has the row and columnidentifiers −6112346 and 14112346. The digits of the column identifierare appended to the digits of the row identifier to generate the cellidentifier −611234614112346.

In FIG. 13, the row and column identifiers can be recovered from thecell identifier. The number of digits in the cell identifier divided by2 provides the number of leading digits for the row identifier; and theremaining digits are for the column identifier. From the row identifierand column identifiers, the latitude digits and longitude digits can becomputed via subtraction of the respective padding. The truncatedcoordinates can be computed from the latitude digits and longitudedigits respectively, which can be used to determine the coordinates of avertex of the cell as (−41.12345, −51.12345). Based on the resolution ofthe cell being at 0.00001, the coordinates of other vertexes of the cellcan be determined as (−41.12346, −51.12345), (−41.12346, −51.12344),(−41.12345, −51.12344). The bounding box of the cell and the neighboringcells can also be easily identified based on the coordinates.

FIG. 13 illustrates a way to append the digits of the column identifierto the digits of the row identifier to generate the cell identifier.Alternatively, the row identifier and the column identifier can becombined in other ways that can be reversed to derive the row identifierand the column identifier from the cell identifier.

For example, when the top level column identifiers are mapped to therange 11 to 46 to have a fixed number of two digits for the top levelcolumn, the column identifier is 2411236. Since there is no ambiguity inthe number of digits used to represent the top level column, the toplevel column identifier (24) can be appended after the top level rowidentifier (−6), which is then appended with the row and columnidentifiers of the next level, and so on. Thus, a cell identifier of−6241111223366 can be generated, with the sign then the first threedigits representing the top level row and column, and two digits forsubsequent next level row and column to identifying the subdivisionwithin the higher level cell.

In some embodiments, the row and column identifiers of the bottom levelare not padded in a way illustrated in FIG. 11 to have different ways toaccount for the locations on grid lines at the lowest level resolution.

FIGS. 9-11 and 13 illustrate a grid hierarchy based on a decimalrepresentation of longitude and latitude coordinates. Alternatively, thegrid hierarchy can be constructed in accordance with longitude andlatitude coordinates expressed using other bases, such as binary,ternary, quintal, octal, duodecimal, etc. in a similar way.

Further, in some embodiments, the longitude and latitude coordinates maybe normalized (e.g., in the standardized data range between 0 to 1); andthe grids can be constructed in the space of the normalized longitudeand latitude coordinates.

The hierarchical grid can also be extended to a three-dimensional space.For example, a hierarchical grid can be constructed with regular gridsin the longitude, latitude, altitude space, or in a mapped or normalizedlongitude, latitude, and altitude space.

FIG. 14 shows a system configured to map a location of a mobile deviceto one or more identifications of regions according to one embodiment.In FIG. 14, the mobile device (109) determines the coordinates (171) ofits location (111) based on the wireless signals (179) to and/or from alocation determination system, such as the Global Positioning System(GPS).

The coordinates (171) are converted to a cell identifier (173) of a cellthat contains the location, e.g., in a way as illustrated in FIG. 12 or13.

In the database (181), a set of cell identifiers are stored inassociation with region identifiers (185), where each of the cellidentifiers is associated with one or more of the respective regionswhen the respective cell contains at least a portion of the one or moreof the respective regions.

In one embodiment, the set of cell identifiers are organized as a cellidentifier tree (183) to facilitate the search of a matching identifier.

For example, the cell identifier tree (183) can be constructed as aself-balancing tree for efficient searching of a cell identifiermatching the cell identifier (173) generated from the coordinates (171)of the mobile device (109).

In general, any methods to search for an identifier with a set ofpredetermined identifiers can be used to search for the matching cellidentifier (173).

From the association of the cells with the region identifiers (185) inthe database, the server (187) determines the identification (175) ofthe one or more defined regions that are at least partially in the cellidentified by the cell identifier (173). Thus, the location (111) of themobile device (109) is determined to be within the region(s) identifiedby the identification (175) of the defined region(s).

Similarly, after regions of different sizes and locations arerepresented via the cells in the hierarchical grid, the system can beconfigured to efficiently compute overlapping portions of regions viasearching for cells having the same identifications.

For example, to determine the approximate overlapping between regions,the percentage of overlapping, the square of overlap, etc., the systemis configured to count a number of overlapped cells to determine theoverlapping.

In one embodiment, a polygon or any other shape is approximated by a setof rectangular and/or square cell of different sizes in a suitablecoordinate system (e.g., in longitude latitude space). Each cell isrepresented by a single number as identifier. The identifiers of thecells used to approximate the polygon or shape can be organized as abinary tree, a self-balanced tree, a Red/Black Tree, or other structuresthat are known to provide logarithmic search time to improve thecomputation efficiency in determining whether a point is within thepolygon or shape.

For example, a polygon representing the boundary of United States ofAmerica USA on a map may include 2,000 vertexes. The Ray Castingalgorithm has O(n) complexity to calculate if a point is within thepolygon. When this polygon is approximated via a hierarchical gridsystem discussed above, the polygon can be represented 700 to 2,000,000cells in the longitude latitude space, depending on the requiredprecision. When the polygon is represented by 2,000,000 cells and theircorresponding identification numbers, searching a matching identifier atthe same precision via a binary tree gives log(2,000,000)=21 complexity,which is much less than 2,000. Thus, the present disclosure improves thecomputational efficiency of identifying a region in which a mobiledevice is located.

FIG. 16 shows a method of mapping a location of a mobile device to aregion according to one embodiment. For example, the method of FIG. 16can be implemented in the system of FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 14, using thegrid system illustrated FIGS. 2-8, and/or the grid system and cellidentifier system illustrated in FIGS. 8-13.

In FIG. 16, a computing apparatus is configured to: identify (221) a setof cells in a grid system that are within the predefined boundary of ageographic region; receive (223) a location (111) of a mobile device(109); convert (225) the location (111)to the identifier of a cell thatcontains the location; and search (227) identifiers of the set of cellsto determine if the cell identifier of the location (111) is in the set.If it is determined (228) that the cell identifier of the location (111)is in the set, the computing apparatus determines (229) that thelocation (111) of the mobile device (109) is in the geographic region.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus includes at least one of: thedatabase (181) and the server (187).

In one embodiment, the database (181) is configured to store anidentifier of a geographical region (101) having a predefinedgeographical boundary defined by a set of vertexes (e.g., 123) or a setof other parameters, such as a center location and a radius.

The database (181) further stores a set of cell identifiers, each ofwhich identifies a cell that is determined to be within the predefinedgeographical boundary of the geographical region (101).

After the server (187) receives, from a mobile device (109), a location(111) of the mobile device (109), the server (187) converts a set ofcoordinates (143, 145) of the location (111) of the mobile device (109)to a cell identifier (153) of a cell that contains the location (111).In some embodiments, the mobile device (109) generates the cellidentifier (153) at a desired precision level to represent the location(111) of the mobile device (109).

The server (187) determines whether the location (111) of the mobiledevice (109) is within the geographical region (101) based on searchingthe set of cell identifiers to determine if the set has the cellidentifier (153) computed from the coordinates (143, 145) of thelocation (111) of the mobile device (109).

In one embodiment, to convert the set of coordinates (143, 145) of thelocation (143, 145) to the cell identifier (153), the server (187) (orthe mobile device (109)) generates two integers from longitude andlatitude coordinates of the location (111) of the mobile device (109)according to a precision level (e.g., resolution level (147), andcombine the two integers into the first cell identifier (153) withoutusing a floating point number computation.

In one embodiment, each cell using the in the system to approximate theregions and the locations is a rectangle/square area in a longitudelatitude space of locations on the earth. The size of the cell can beunambiguously determined from the cell identifier itself. Further, thelongitude and latitude coordinates of corners of the cell identified bythe cell identifier can be unambiguously determined from the cellidentifier itself.

In one embodiment, the set of cells identified by the set of cellidentifiers to approximate one or more regions (e.g., 101, 103, . . . ,105, . . . , 107) has a plurality of different cell sizes thatcorrespond to a plurality of predetermined cell resolution levels. Eachof the plurality of predetermined cell resolution levels corresponds toa predetermined precision level of longitudes and latitudes of locationson the earth. For example, each of the plurality of predetermined cellresolution levels corresponds to a precision to a predetermined digitafter the decimal point in longitude and latitude coordinates oflocations on the earth.

In one embodiment, a cell identifier itself includes sufficientinformation to determine the resolution level of the cell, thecoordinates of the vertexes of the cell, and the identifiers of theneighboring cells, etc.

In one embodiment, the database (181) stores data mapping each cellidentify in the set of cell identifiers to at least one regionidentifier, where the cell contains a least a part of each of theregions identified by the at least one region identifier. The server(187) is configured to search the set of cell identifiers to find a cellidentifier that matches with the cell identifier (153) computed from thelocation (141) and thus determine at least one region identifierassociated with the matching cell identifier.

For example, in one embodiment, the set of coordinates of the location(111) includes longitude (143) and latitude (145) of the location (111).To converting the coordinates (143, 145) to the cell identifier (153),the server (187) (or the mobile device (109)) selects digits from thelongitude (143) and the latitude (145) of the location (111) inaccordance with a cell resolution level (147) and combines the digitsselected from the longitude (143) and the latitude (145) of the location(111) into an integer representing the cell identifier (153) of thelocation (111).

As illustrated in FIG. 13, selecting the digits from the longitude andthe latitude includes: selecting digits from integer part of thelongitude and a first number of digits from the longitude after thedecimal point of the longitude to form an integer representation of thelongitude at the cell resolution level; and selecting digits frominteger part of the latitude and the same first number of digits fromthe latitude after the decimal point of the latitude to form an integerrepresentation of the longitude at the cell resolution level.

In one embodiment, to generate the column identifier and row identifierof the location (111), a predetermined number (e.g., one) is added to adigit of the integer representation of the latitude that corresponds tothe tens digit of the latitude; and a sign is provided to the integerrepresentation of the latitude according to the sign of the latitude.

In one embodiment, after providing a sign to the integer representationof the longitude according to the sign of the longitude, a predeterminednumber (e.g., eighteen) is added to digits of the integer representationof the longitude that corresponds to the hundreds digit and tens digitof the longitude, in view of the sign provided to the integerrepresentation of the longitude.

In one embodiment, when the latitude coordinate has a non-zero portionthat is discarded during the selection of the latitude digits for theinteger representation of the latitude, one is added to the ones digitof the integer representation of the latitude without considering thesign of the integer representation of the latitude. When the longitudecoordinate has a non-zero portion that is discarded during the selectionof the longitude digits for the integer representation, one is added tothe ones digit of the integer representation of the longitude withoutconsidering the sign of the integer representation of the longitude.

In one embodiment, after the server (187) receives data representing thepredefined geographical boundary of the geographical region, such as thecoordinates of the vertexes of a region having a polygon shape, thecoordinates of the center and the radius of a region having a circularshape, etc., the server (187) identify, in a hierarchy of cell grids,the set of cell identifiers that are determined to be within thepredefined geographical boundary.

In one embodiment, when the set of cells being searched having differentresolutions (cell sizes), the location (111) of the mobile device (109)is converted to a plurality of cell identifiers at the correspondingresolutions; and the server (187) is configured to search a match of anyof the cell identifiers at the corresponding resolutions computed fromthe location (111) of the mobile device (109).

For example, the identifiers of the cells of different sizes/resolutionsto represent the regions can be organized in a single tree; and theidentifiers of the location (111) of the mobile device (109) ofcorresponding sizes/resolutions can be searched concurrently or oneafter another to find a match.

For example, the identifiers of the cells of different sizes/resolutionsto represent the regions can be organized in separate trees according tocell sizes/resolutions; and the identifiers of the location (111) of themobile device (109) of corresponding sizes/resolutions can be searchedconcurrently or one after another in the respective trees forcorresponding sizes/resolutions.

In one embodiment, each grid in the hierarchy of cell grids correspondsto a rectangle/square grid in longitude latitude space of locations onthe earth with a predetermined resolution level that corresponds to aprecision level in a floating point decimal representation of longitudeand latitude coordinates.

The server (187) and/or the database (181) can be implemented as acomputer apparatus in the form of a data processing system illustratedin FIG. 15.

In one embodiment, the techniques disclosed above are used to maplocation histories of mobile devices into visitation histories of themobile devices to one or more pre-defined regions. The visitationpatterns of the mobile devices can be used to identify mobile deviceshaving similar behaviors and/or different behaviors in relation withlocations. For example, the differences in behaviors following an eventbetween mobile devices that are associated with the event and mobiledevices that are not associated with the event can be measured as aninfluence of the event, if the mobile devices have the same or similarbehaviors prior to the event.

For example, the mobile devices initially having similar behaviorprofiles may have different behaviors after some of the mobile devicesare provided with an advertisement and others are not. Thus, thedifference can be detected as a measurement of theinfluence/effectiveness of the advertisement.

FIG. 17 shows a method to detect differences in location patternsaccording to one embodiment.

In FIG. 17, the server (187) is configured to identify (241) a pair ofmobile devices, including a first mobile device associated with an eventand a second mobile device not associated with the event, to measure theinfluence of the event.

For the first mobile device, the server (187) is configured to: receive(243) locations of the first mobile device; convert (245) the locationsto one or more cell identifiers; search (247) for regions containing thecell identifiers; and generate (249) first data representing a locationpattern based on presence of the first mobile device in the regions.

For the second mobile device, the server (187) is similarly configuredto: receive (253) locations of the second mobile device; convert (255)the locations to one or more cell identifiers; search (257) for regionscontaining the cell identifiers; and generate (259) second datarepresenting a location pattern based on presence of the second mobiledevice in the regions.

The server (187) identifies (251) a difference of the first data and thesecond data as a measurement of an influence of the event. Preferably,the pair of mobile devices have similar attributes and/or locationpatterns prior to the event. Alternatively, the change in locationpatterns of the first mobile device before and after the event can becompared to the change in location patterns of the second mobile devicebefore and after the event to measure the influence of the event.

For example, the pair of mobile devices may be initially identified tohave similar profiles in location patterns and/or other attributes, suchas the demographic data of their users, the propensity scores of theirusers, etc. After the event of an advertisement being transmitted to theuser of the first mobile device but not the user of the second mobiledevice, the difference in the location patterns represents a measurementof the influence/effectiveness of the advertisement in changinglocation/visitation patterns.

Further, the differences in other attributes associated with the pair ofmobile devices can be determined as measurements of theinfluence/effectiveness of the advertisement with respect tocorresponding attributes. Examples of such attributes include theenrollment in a program or service, visitation to certain websites, foottraffic to a store, web traffic to a website, etc.

For example, the event may include an advertisement for a geographicalregion; and the method may be adapted to measure the effectiveness ofthe advertisement in changing a pattern of visitation to thegeographical region, as illustrated in FIG. 18.

FIG. 18 shows a method to detect differences in location patterns ofdifferent mobile devices visiting a predetermined region according toone embodiment.

In FIG. 18, the server (187) identifies (261) a pair of mobile devices,including a first mobile device associated with an event relevant to apredetermined region and a second mobile device not associated with theevent, to measure an influence of an event related to the region.

For the first mobile device, the server (187) is configured to: receive(263) locations of the first mobile device; convert (265) the locationsto one or more cell identifiers; determine (267) whether the locationsare in the region using the techniques discussed above based onsearching for matching cell identifiers; and generate (269) first datarepresenting a presence pattern of the first mobile device in theregion.

For the second mobile device, the server (187) is similarly configuredto: receive (273) locations of the second mobile device; convert (275)the locations to one or more cell identifiers; determine (277) whetherthe locations are in the region using the techniques discussed abovebased on searching for matching cell identifiers; and generate (279)second data representing a presence pattern of the second mobile devicein the region.

The server (187) identifies (271) a difference of the first data and thesecond data as a measurement of an influence of the event. Preferably,the pair of mobile devices have similar attributes and/or locationpatterns prior to the event. Alternatively, the change in locationpatterns of the first mobile device before and after the event can becompared to the change in location patterns of the second mobile devicebefore and after the event to measure the influence of the event.

In one embodiment, the measured influence is based on the differencebetween two groups of mobile devices, instead of the different betweentwo mobile devices, to account for the pattern variations in theindividual mobile devices.

FIG. 19 shows a method to measure the influence of an event based ondifferences in location patterns of mobile devices visiting apredetermined region according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 19, the server (187) is identifies (301) two groups of mobiledevices, including a first group associated with an event relevant to apredetermined region and a second group not associated with the event,to measure the influence of the event on groups of mobile devices.

The server (187) is configured to: receive (303) locations of mobiledevices in the two groups; convert (305) the locations to respectivecell identifiers; determine (307) whether the locations are in theregion based on whether the region has the respective cell identifiers;generate (309) first data representing a presence pattern of the mobiledevices in the first group in the region; and generate (311) second datarepresenting a presence pattern of the mobile devices in the secondgroup in the region.

The server (187) determines (313) a difference between the first dataand the second data as a measurement of the influence of the event.

In one embodiment, the server (187) determines the change of presencepattern of each mobile device, the average change of presence pattern inthe first group, the average change of presence pattern in the secondgroup, and then the difference between the average changes of presencepattern in the two groups for a measurement of the influence of theevent.

In some embodiments, the presence patterns of mobile devices aredetermined to select groups of mobile devices having similar behaviors,including the presence patterns.

FIG. 20 shows a method to identify mobile devices having similarpatterns of visiting a predetermined region according to one embodiment.The mobile devices having similar behaviors can be divided into twogroups to measure the influence of an event.

In FIG. 20, the server (187) is configured to: receive (321) locationsof mobile devices; convert (323) the locations to respective cellidentifiers; determine (325) whether the locations are in apredetermined region based on whether the region has the respective cellidentifiers; identify (327) presence patterns of the mobile devices inthe region; and identify (329) a subset of the mobile devices based atleast in part on similarity in presence patterns.

The server (187) divides (331) the subset of mobile devices into twogroups, including a first group for association with an event relevantto a predetermined region and a second group not associated with theevent. The method of FIG. 20 can then be used to measure the influenceof the event.

In some embodiments, an event may have influence on the visitationpatterns of a mobile device in visiting multiple regions.

FIG. 21 shows a method to identify mobile devices having similarpatterns of visiting predetermined regions according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 21, the server (187) is configured to: receive (341) locationsof mobile devices; convert (343) the locations to respective cellidentifiers; identify (345) predetermined regions in which the locationsare, based on whether the regions have the respective cell identifiers;identify (347) presence patterns of the mobile devices in the regions;identify (349) a subset of the mobile devices based at least in part onsimilarity in the presence patterns; and divide (351) the subset ofmobile devices into two groups, including a first group for associationwith an event relevant to a predetermined region and a second group notassociated with the event.

In one embodiment, the locations of a mobile device are received as afunction of time. Thus, the visitations of the mobile devices aredetermined as a function of time to determine presence patterns based atleast in part on time.

FIG. 22 shows a method to measure the influence of an event according toone embodiment.

In FIG. 22, the server (187) is configured to: identify (361) a set ofmobile devices based at least in part on similarity in associatedpatterns; divide (363) the set of mobile devices into two groups,including a first group for association with an event relevant to apredetermined region and a second group not associated with the event;determine (365) a difference in associated patterns between the mobiledevices in the first group and the mobile devices in the second group;and generate (367) a measurement of the influence of the event based onthe difference.

In one embodiment, when the set of mobile devices initially havingsimilar but not identical associated patterns prior to the event, theserver (187) is configured determine the change of associated patternsfor each mobile device before and after the event. The server (187) thendetermines the difference in the changes of associated patterns in thefirst and second groups to measure the influence of the event.

For example, the above discussed techniques can be used to measure theadvertising effectiveness. In various embodiments, attribute dataincluded in a first user profile may be used to select a second userprofile that is substantially similar to the first user profile. Thefirst user profile may include an indication of exposure to advertisingcontent data associated with a location and the second profile may notinclude such an indication. For example, a first user profile may beassociated with a first user that has seen an advertisement for alocation and the second user profile may be associated with a seconduser who has not seen the ad. In various embodiments, propensity scorematching and/or other approaches may be used to select a second userprofile. For example, a propensity score may be generated based on theattribute data in the first user profile (e.g. demographic data,behavioral data, etc.) and the propensity score may be compared topropensity scores generated for other user profiles to select a seconduser profile. The second user profile may, for example, be associatedwith a propensity score that matches (e.g., most closely matches) thepropensity score associated with the first user profile.

According to some embodiments, first behavior information (e.g., achange in number/frequency of visits to a location over a period priorto and over a period after seeing an ad related to the location) may bedetermined based at least in part on an association between the firstuser profile and a location associated with the advertising contentdata. Second behavior information may be determined based at least inpart on an association between the second user profile and the location.An advertising effectiveness value may be generated based at least inpart on the first behavior information and the second behaviorinformation.

In one embodiment, attribute data included in a first user profile maybe used to select a second user profile that is substantially similar tothe first user profile. In various embodiments, attribute data mayinclude, for example, demographic data, behavioral data, data fromthird-party sources, psycho-graphic data, location visit frequencypatterns, shopping cart spend data (e.g., including similar productsand/or categories of products), and/or any other data associated with auser. A first user profile may include a user profile for a user thathas been exposed to advertising content associated with a location(e.g., an advertisement to drive foot traffic to the location). In someembodiments, attribute data included in a first user profile may becompared to attribute data associated with one or more other userprofiles associated with users who have not been exposed to theadvertising content. And a user profile including attributes that aresubstantially similar to (e.g., matches) the attributes included in thefirst user profile may be selected. Various approaches may be used toidentify (e.g., select) matching user profiles including, for example,propensity score matching, statistical matching approaches, one-to-onematching, and/or any other any other matching technique.

In various embodiments, the first user profile may include a userprofile from an exposed/test group, and the second user profile mayinclude a user profile from a control group and/or general populationgroup. The first user profile and second user profile may be used totest (e.g., measure) the effectiveness and/or influence of advertisingcontent data associated with a location (e.g., an advertisement to driveusers to a retail location). The first user profile (e.g., theexposed/test group user profile) may include an indication that a userassociated with the first user profile has been exposed to advertisingcontent data associated with a location. And the second user profile(e.g., control group user profile, general population user profile) mayinclude an indication that a user associated with the second userprofile has not been exposed to the advertising content. In variousembodiments, to accurately measure the influence of the advertisingcontent data, the second user profile may be selected such that anyattributes, characteristics, biases, confounding variables, and/or otherfactors that may affect the outcome of the measurement are reducedand/or eliminated. In certain cases, any variables potentially affectingthe outcome of the measurement may be reduced by selecting a second userprofile that is substantially similar (e.g., as close as possible) tothe first user profile.

By way of example, a first user profile may include attribute dataincluding demographic data (e.g., data indicating that the user isfemale, 30-40 years old, resides in San Francisco, Calif., has ahousehold income of $100,000, etc.), behavioral data (e.g., the uservisits a coffee shop three times per week), third party data (e.g.,purchased a condo for $200,000 in 2006), psycho-graphic data (e.g.,leads a healthy lifestyle, likely to vote for a particular politicalparty, etc.), and other attribute data. Based on the attribute data, asecond user profile that matches (e.g., is substantially similar to) thefirst user profile may be selected. The second user profile may includesimilar (e.g., matching) attribute data including demographic data(e.g., user is female, 30-40 years old, residing in San Francisco,Calif., household income of $95,000, etc.), behavioral data (e.g.,visits the coffee shop four times per week), and/or other attributedata.

In one example matching approach, the attribute data from user profilesmay be used in a regression approach (e.g., logistic regression, linearregression, etc.) to generate a model (e.g., generalized linear model(GLM), logit model, discrete choice model, etc.). For example, a model(e.g., generalized linear model (GLM)) may represent a correlationbetween a dependent variable of whether or not a user has been exposedto advertising content and a set/vector of covariates includingattribute data included in the user profiles. The model (e.g.,generalized linear model (GLM)) may be used to generate propensityscores for each of the multiple profiles. In some embodiments, apropensity score associated with the first user profile (e.g.,associated with a user who has seen an ad) may be used toidentify/select a matching (e.g., most closely matching) second userprofile (e.g., associated with a user who has not seen the ad). Avariety of matching approaches including nearest neighbor, kernel, locallinear, caliper, and/or other matching techniques may be used to matchthe first and second user profiles based, for example, on propensityscores.

In one embodiment, first behavior information may be determined based atleast in part on an association between the first user profile and alocation associated with advertising content data. In variousembodiments, behavior information may include information associatedwith a user's presence at one or more locations. In some embodiments, afirst behavior information may include a number of instances, a numberof instances over a period of time, and/or a frequency/rate that a userassociated with the first user profile has been determined to be presentat the location (e.g., visited the location). For example, a user may bedetermined to be present at a location based on location data (e.g.,latitude/longitude and/or other location identifying information)received from a mobile device associated with the user. In certaincases, the location data may be received in connection with anadvertisement request, a WiFi login page, marketing opportunity within amobile application, entering a geo-fence, a deal and/or opportunityassociated with a mobile device, etc. In various embodiments, locationdata received from a user device may be mapped to one or more definedlocations. And based on a mapping of location data to a locationassociated with advertising content data, a user may be determined to bepresent at that location. When a user is determined to be present at alocation, a user profile associated with that user may be updated toinclude information (e.g., behavioral information) associated with theuser's presence at the location. For example, the user profile may beupdated to include the location, a time (e.g., time/day stamp) ofpresence, duration of presence (e.g., five minutes), and/or otherinformation related to the user's presence at the location. Thisinformation may be used to determine behavior information associatedwith the user profile and the location.

According to various embodiments, behavior information may include anumber of times that and/or frequency with which a user associated witha user profile has been present at a location prior to and/or afterbeing exposed to a digital advertisement. For example, a user associatedwith a first user profile may receive a digital advertisement includingadvertising content data associated with a location at certain time(e.g., a time (t0), a date, etc.). The time at which a user is exposedto advertising content data may include an advertising exposure time(e.g., time of exposure). In various embodiments, a user may have beenexposed to advertising content data multiple times and the advertisingexposure time may include the time of first exposure, time of lastexposure, an average/median time over a period of multiple exposures,and/or any other time.

In some embodiments, behavior information associated with a first userprofile may include a number of times a first user visited the locationover a period of time (e.g., one week, three days, etc.) prior toexposure to advertising content data (e.g., viewing an ad). The periodprior to exposure may include, for example, a look-back period. Thelook-back period may include any period of time (e.g., a predefinedperiod, arbitrary period, etc.). A number, frequency, and/or rate atwhich a user visits a location during the look-back period may include anatural visit frequency/rate. A natural visit rate may represent a rateat which a user visits a location in the absence of exposure toadvertising content (e.g., of the user's own volition, uninfluenced byadvertising content, etc.).

In various embodiments, behavior information associated with the firstuser profile may include a number of times the user visited the locationover a period of time after the time of exposure to the advertisingcontent data (e.g., viewing the ad). The period of time afteradvertising exposure may include a look-forward period, and thelook-forward period may be selected/determined in a manner similar tothe look-back period. In certain cases, the look-forward period,however, may be selected to be substantially different than thelook-back period. In another example, behavior information may include afrequency (e.g., one time per day, three times per week, etc.) at whichthe user visited the location during the look-forward period afterexposure to the advertising content.

In some embodiments, behavior information may include a differencebetween a natural visit rate (e.g., a number of times and/or frequencyat which a user was at the location during a period of time (e.g., alook-back period) prior to exposure to the advertising content data) anda number of times and/or frequency at which the user was at the locationduring a period of time after exposure (e.g., a look-forward period).The first behavior information may, for example, include value(s)quantifying an increase, decrease, and/or lack of change of the firstuser's behavior relative to the location (e.g., presence at thelocation) prior to and after seeing an advertisement. In variousembodiments, an increase in presence at a location after viewingadvertising content may indicate that the advertising content wassuccessful in influencing the behavior of the user.

In various embodiments, behavior information may be determined based onlocation data from multiple mobile devices. For example, a user may bepresent at a location on a first day as determined by locationinformation from a first device. After the first day, the user mayreplace the first device with a second device. Subsequently the user maybe determined to be present at the location based on location data fromthe second device. In this case, location information received from bothdevices may be included in a user profile for the user, and behaviorinformation may be determined based on location data from both devicesthat is included in the user profile.

In one embodiment, second behavior information may be determined basedat least in part on an association between the second user profile andthe location. In various embodiments, the second behavior informationmay include a number of instances, a number of instances over a periodof time, and/or a frequency that a user associated with the second userprofile (e.g., a control group profile) has been determined to bepresent at the location (e.g., visited the location).

In various embodiments, the second behavior information may include achange, if any, between the second user's visit frequency over a period(e.g., a look-back period) prior to a point in time as compared with thesecond user's visit frequency over a period (e.g., a look-forwardperiod) after the point in time. The point in time (e.g., a referencetime) may include, for example, the time at which the first user wasexposed to the advertising content, a time relative to the time at whichthe first user was exposed to the advertising content, an arbitrarytime, a time selected to ensure a proper comparison with the firstbehavior information, and/or another time.

In one embodiment, an advertising effectiveness value (e.g., a valuerepresenting advertising effectiveness, advertising effectivenessindicator) may be generated based at least in part on the first behaviorinformation and the second behavior information. In some embodiments, anadvertising effectiveness value may include number(s), value(s),percentage(s), metric(s) (e.g., a return on investment (ROI) metric, keyperformance indicator (KPI)), and/or any other data. The advertisingeffectiveness value may represent a change in number of visits (e.g.,increase/lift in foot traffic) to a location as a result of exposure tothe advertising content data.

In various embodiments, an advertising effectiveness value may becalculated/generated based on the first and second behavior information.In some embodiments, the advertising effectiveness value may begenerated based on a comparison between a change in behavior from a time(e.g., a first time, a series of times, etc.) a first user sees an adrelative to their natural visit rate and a change in behavior of asecond user who did not see the ad at the same time (e.g., an absolutesame time, relative same time, etc.). Stated another way, theadvertising effectiveness value may be generated based on a comparisonof the first behavior information associated with a first user who sawan ad related to a location and second behavior information associatedwith a second user who did not see the ad. As discussed above, the firstbehavior information may include a change in a first user's visitbehavior after exposure to advertising content relative to their naturalvisit rate. In other words, the first behavior information may becalculated based on a comparison (e.g., difference, change, etc.) of afirst user's visit frequency to a location over a period of time (e.g.,a look-back period) prior to exposure to advertising content related tothe location and the user's visit frequency over a period after exposure(e.g., a look-forward period) to the advertising content. A secondbehavior information may include a change in behavior of a second user,who was not exposed to advertising content, as measured by a comparisonof the second user's visit frequency to the location over a period(e.g., look-back period) prior to a certain time (e.g., the time whenthe first user saw the ad, a time relative to the time the first usersaw the ad, an arbitrary time, etc.) and the second user's visitfrequency over a period (e.g., look-forward period) after that time. Thecomparison of the first behavior information and second behaviorinformation may be used to generate an incremental lift (e.g.,advertising effectiveness value, which can be positive, negative, and/orzero) associated with the advertising content.

By way of example, first behavior information may indicate that a firstuser visited a coffee shop four times in the two weeks (e.g., alook-back period) prior to exposure to an ad for the coffee shop (e.g.,an ad for a free coffee at the shop displayed to the first user on theirmobile device). This visit rate over the look-back period (four times intwo weeks (i.e., two times per week)) may include a natural visit ratefor the first user. The first behavior information may also indicatethat the first user visited the coffee shop four times in the weekfollowing exposure to the advertisement (e.g., a look-forward period). Asecond user profile may be matched to the first user profile using thematching techniques discussed herein. The second user may be a user withsimilar attributes to the first user. Second behavior information mayindicate that the second user visited the coffee shop three times overthe two weeks (e.g., a look-back period) prior to a point in time (e.g.,the time the first user was exposed to the ad, a reference time, etc.)and two times in the week after that point in time. The advertisingeffectiveness value may be calculated based on the first behaviorinformation and second behavior information. In one example, theadvertising effectiveness value may include a comparison between achange in the first user's visit frequency prior to and after adexposure time (e.g., four visits per week during the look-forward periodversus two visits per week during the look-back period or achange/increase of two visits per week) and a change in the seconduser's visit frequency prior to and after the point in time (e.g., twotimes per week during the look-forward period and 1.5 times per weekduring the look-back period or a change of 0.5 visits per week).

In various embodiments, the process of generating advertisingeffectiveness values may be repeated for multiple pairs of users (e.g.,associated with a location). And the multiple advertising effectivenessvalues may be aggregated (e.g., summed up, added together) to generatean aggregate advertising effectiveness value as discussed in detailbelow. An aggregate advertising effectiveness value including one ormore advertising effectiveness values may include a location conversionindex (LCI). In various embodiments, a group of users may be selected todetermine an effectiveness/influence of advertising content (e.g., indriving users to a retail location). The group of users may, forexample, be related to the location in some way (e.g., each user mayhave visited the location over a period of time, the users may havesimilar demographic attributes, etc.). The group of users may be dividedinto subgroups including an exposed subgroup (e.g., test subgroup) ofusers that have been exposed to the advertising content data and controlsubgroup including users not exposed to the advertising content data.Using the techniques discussed herein user profiles from the exposedsubgroup may be paired to user profiles from the control subgroup and/ora general population subgroup. And advertising effectiveness values maybe generated for each pairing of users, and the advertisingeffectiveness values may be aggregated (e.g., summed up) to generate anaggregate advertising effectiveness value. In various embodiments, theprocess of generating advertising effectiveness values may be performediteratively across many different user profiles.

In some embodiments, the process of generating advertising effectivenessvalues may be repeated for multiple types of advertising content. Forexample, advertising effectiveness values may be generated for multipleversions of advertising content data.

In various embodiments, a user profile may include, for example,demographic data (e.g., household income, residence, value of home(s),occupation, work location, age, gender), behavioral data, data fromthird party data sources (e.g., property records, social network profileinformation, etc.), mobile device data (e.g., a list of applications ona device), psycho-graphic data, location visit frequency patterns,shopping cart spend data (e.g., including similar products and/orcategories of products), and/or any other data associated with a user.

In some embodiments, behavioral attributes may be derived, for example,from a user's past locations (e.g., location pattern(s)), prior actions,and/or other data. For example, a user (e.g., associated with userprofile) may have been determined to be at a location based on alocation data received, for example, along with a mobile advertisingrequest (e.g., from the user's mobile device). The location data may bemapped to a business, place of interest, zip+4 code, and/or otherlocation. The mapped location data may be used to update a locationpattern in the user's profile. The location patterns, behaviorattributes, and/or other location-related information may be included ina location graph in, for example, the user's profile.

In some embodiments, demographic, behavioral, and/or other attributesassociated with the business, place of interest, etc. to which a user'slocation has been mapped may be included in a user profile associatedwith that user. For example, a business (e.g., location) may beassociated with demographic, behavioral, and/or other attributes. And asa result of a user's detected presence at the business, behavioraland/or other attributes associated with the business may be attributedto the user (e.g., added to a user profile associated with the user). Incertain cases, attributes added to a user profile may be confirmed to becorrect or incorrect based on other information (e.g., attributesassociated with other locations the same user has visited, informationfrom third party data sources, a user's device, etc.).

In some embodiments, an advertising effectiveness platform/serviceresiding on one or more servers generates advertising effectivenessvalues (e.g., advertising effective index(es), location conversionindex(es)/values, etc.) based on information derived from one or moreuser profiles. The advertising effectiveness service may query, mineand/or otherwise process user profile information stored in the userprofile data store. For example, user profile information may beselected from the user profile data store and behavior information maybe determined based on the selected user profile information.Advertising effectiveness values (e.g., generated based on the behaviorinformation) may be stored in an advertising effectiveness data store.In various embodiments, an advertising provider may use the advertisingeffectiveness service to measure the effectiveness (e.g., influence,value, ROI, etc.) of an advertising campaign.

In one embodiment, an advertiser, advertisement provider, advertisementplatform, and/or other entity may seek to determine an effectiveness ofan advertising campaign associated with a retail location (e.g., anadvertisement associated with a retail location). A first user may beselected based on a determination that the first user has been servedadvertising content associated with the campaign, the first user hasvisited the location prior to being served advertising content, and/orother criteria. In various embodiments, attribute data associated with afirst user (e.g., included in a first user profile) may be used toselect a second user. For example, location attribute data associatedwith the first user may indicate that the first user is a female, age20-30, and employed at a technology firm. The location attribute datamay also indicate that the first user visited the retail location (e.g.,a fashion retailer) four times in the month prior to viewing anadvertisement for the retail location. This natural visit frequencyprior to being served the advertising content may include normal visits,unaided visits, and/or other types of visits to the retail location.Based on the first user's attribute data, a second user may be selected.In various embodiments, the second user may be selected usingattribute-based matching, propensity score matching, and/or othermatching approaches. The second user may, for example, include a usermost similar (e.g., in demographic, behavioral, and/or other attributes;propensity score; and/or other metrics) to the first user. The seconduser may be selected based on a determination that the second user hasnot been exposed to the advertising content associated with the retaillocation and/or any advertising content associated with the retaillocation. In this example, a second user who is a female, age 20-30,employed at a law firm and visits the retail location three times permonth may be selected. Whereas, another user who is a male, aged 40-50,employed as a doctor, and visits the retail location two times perquarter may not be selected as a similar user. The user may, however, beselected as a randomly-selected user as discussed below.

In various embodiments, first behavior information may be determined. Incertain cases, the first behavior information may represent a comparisonof a number of visits prior to and after the first user has been exposedto the advertising content (e.g., has viewed an ad, is presumed to haveviewed an) associated with the retail location. According to someembodiments, second behavior information may be determined. In certaincases, the second behavior information may represent a number of timesthe second user visits the retail location prior to and after a certainpoint in time (e.g., the time the first user was exposed to theadvertising content, another time, etc.). In various embodiments, anadvertising effectiveness value may be generated based on the firstbehavior information associated with the first user and the secondbehavior information associated with second user. In variousembodiments, the advertising effectiveness value may quantify/representthe influence of the advertising content data associated with thelocation.

According to some embodiments, an advertising effectiveness value may begenerated based on a comparison of behavior information associated withthe first user and behavior information associated with arandomly-selected user (e.g., a user from the general population). Invarious embodiments, a randomly-selected user may be selected based on adetermination that the user is associated with the location (e.g., hasvisited the location over a period of time). It may be determined, forexample, that the user has visited (360) the retail location; however,demographic data associated with user may not be similar to thedemographic data associated with the first user. In various embodiments,an advertising effectiveness value may be generated based the behaviorinformation associated with the first user and behavior informationassociated with the randomly-selected user using the approachesdiscussed herein. Generating an advertising effectiveness value based ona comparison of the behavior information associated with the first userand a randomly-selected user may provide additional insight into theeffectiveness/influence of an advertisement.

In one embodiment, it may be determined that a user profile includes anindication of exposure to advertising content data and/or engagementto/with advertising content data. For example, an indication of exposureto advertising content data may include a record indicating that adigital advertisement including advertising content data associated witha location has been presented to a user. The indication may begenerated, for example, when a digital advertisement is output to a useron a device (e.g., a mobile device, computer, smart television, wearablecomputer, etc.). An indication of engagement to/with advertising contentdata may include a record indicating that a user has engaged withadvertising content by, for example, clicking on an ad, expanding an ad,engaging with an via voice input, and/or other records. In variousembodiments, an indication of exposure/engagement may be associated withuser profile and not a specific device. For example, a device (e.g., ahome computer) on which the user was presented advertising content dataand/or interacted with advertising content may be different than adevice detected to be at a location of interest. In some embodiments, anindication of exposure/engagement may be generated when it is determinedthat a user has viewed and/or is likely to have viewed an advertisementpresented in a non-digital medium (e.g., a print ad, mailedadvertisement, etc.).

In one embodiment, the user profile may be selected based on thedetermination that the user associated with the profile has beenexposed/engaged (e.g., is presumed to have viewed) to and/or engagedwith the advertising content data. In various embodiments, a first userprofile (e.g., test user profile) may be selected as a test user profile(e.g., for comparison with a control user profile as discussed herein)based on the determination that the first user profile includes anindication of exposure/engagement to the advertising content data.

In one embodiment, a continuity factor associated with a user profilemay be determined. In various embodiments, continuity factors associatedwith user profiles may be used to select statistically significant userprofiles. A continuity factor may indicate whether and/or to what extenta user was an active user (e.g., active in the system) prior to the timeat which advertising content is served and/or after the advertisingcontent has been served. A continuity factor, in some embodiments, mayinclude a heart-beat indicator associated with the user. For example, ifa user is determined to have been an active user on three separate daysin the week prior to being served an advertisement for a location andthree separate days after viewing the advertisement, the continuityfactor for that user may be determined to be three. In variousembodiments, the period of time prior to ad exposure and after adexposure may be selected based on various factors associated with theadvertising effectiveness calculation. The periods of time may, forexample, be provided via user interface and/or other console from anadvertiser.

In various embodiments, a continuity factor for a user profile may begenerated based on location data from multiple mobile devices. Forexample, a user may be present at a location on a first day asdetermined by location information from a first device. After the firstday the user may replace the first device with a second device.Subsequently the user may be determined to be present at the locationbased on location data from the second device. In this case, locationinformation received from both devices may be included in a user profilefor the user, and a continuity factor may be generated from the locationdata from both devices.

In one embodiment, it may be determined whether a continuity factor isabove a threshold. In various embodiments, a threshold continuity factormay be set to, for example, one or any other value. A continuity factorgreater than or equal to a threshold (e.g., one) may indicate that auser has been an active user before and after being served advertisingcontent. This may indicate that the user profile is viable to be used inthe propensity score calculation. In some embodiments, a continuityfactor below a threshold (e.g., one) may indicate that the user was notpresent in the system prior to being served the advertisement. A userprofile associated with a continuity factor below a threshold (e.g.,one) may not be viable to be used in the propensity score calculationfor purposes of evaluating the influence/effectiveness of advertisingcontent data. In this case, the user may not be selected and the processmay end.

In one embodiment, a user profile associated with a continuity factorabove a threshold may be selected. In various embodiments, a userprofile associated with a continuity factor value above a threshold maybe selected as a test user profile (e.g., first user profile).

In one embodiment, propensity scores may be generated based on attributedata included in one or more user profiles. In some embodiments, apropensity score may represent a conditional probability of assignmentto a particular treatment (e.g., exposure to the advertising content)given a set (e.g., vector) of observed covariates (e.g., attribute dataincluding, for example, demographic attributes, behavioral attributes,psycho-graphic data, etc.). For example, a propensity score mayrepresent a conditional probability of exposure to advertising contentgiven a vector of attribute data (e.g., demographic data, behavioraldata, psycho-graphic data, location visit frequency patterns, shoppingcart spend data (e.g., including similar products and/or categories ofproducts)).

In various embodiments, a propensity score associated with a userprofile may be calculated by regressing the variable of whether or notthe user has been exposed to advertising content against the attributedata included in the user profile. Using regression and/or otherstatistical approaches a model (e.g., generalized linear model (GLM),discreet choice model, etc.) may be generated representing a correlationbetween a dependent variable of whether or not a user has been exposedto advertising content and a set/vector of covariates includingattribute data in the user profiles. In various embodiments, attributedata may be selected for inclusion in the set/vector of covariates toadjust for natural visit patterns, seasonal visit patterns, events,and/or other factors associated with the location of interest. The model(e.g., generalized linear model (GLM)) may be used to generatepropensity scores for each of the multiple profiles. In someembodiments, the propensity score calculation process mayaccount/compensate for natural visit patterns, seasonal visit patterns,events, and/or other factors associated with the location by virtue ofthe attribute data included in the propensity score calculation. Forexample, matching user profiles based on propensity score may reducebias resulting natural visit patterns, seasonal visit patterns, events,and/or other factors.

In one embodiment, a first propensity score associated with the firstuser profile (e.g., a user profile in an exposed group) may be comparedto one or more propensity scores each associated with a user profile ina control group (e.g., a group of user profiles for users not exposed tothe ad content). In various embodiments, a first propensity scoreassociated with the first user profile (e.g., a test group user profile)may be compared to one or more propensity scores to determine matching(e.g., closest/best matching) propensity scores.

In one embodiment, it may be determined whether a first propensity scorematches one or more propensity scores. In some embodiments, a firstpropensity score may be compared to one or more propensity scores todetermine a most-closely matching propensity score. In certainembodiments, nearest neighbor, kernel, local linear, caliper, and/orother matching techniques may be used to match the first propensityscore to one or more propensity scores. In various embodiments, thefirst propensity score may be iteratively compared to multiplepropensity scores to identify a most-closely matching propensity score.For example, a first propensity score (e.g., associated with a firstuser profile) may include a scalar value of 0.7, and this score may becompared to multiple propensity scores (e.g., 0.72, 0.65, 0.6, etc.)each associated with a user profile. Based on this example comparison,the propensity score of 0.72 may be selected as a most closely matchingpropensity score. In the event no propensity score is determined tomatch the first propensity score, the process may end.

In some embodiments, propensity scores may be matched based on athreshold and/or limit. For example, a first propensity score may matcha second propensity score if the difference between the two propensityscores is within a threshold. For example, a first propensity scoreassociated with a first user profile may include a scalar value of 0.35and a second propensity score may include a scalar value of 0.3 and athreshold difference may be defined as 0.1. Because this differencebetween the first propensity score (e.g., 0.35) and second propensityscore (e.g., 0.3) is less than the threshold (e.g., 0.1), the secondpropensity score may be determined to match (e.g., potentially match)the first propensity score.

In one embodiment, user profiles may be selected based on the matchingpropensity scores. In various embodiments, based on the propensity scorematching process, the first user profile (e.g., including an indicationof exposure to the advertising content) may be matched to a second userprofile, and this pair of profiles may selected. Once selected, anadvertising effectiveness value may be calculated for the pair of userprofiles.

In an embodiment of a process of calculating behavior information, afirst timeline depicts a first user's behavioral patterns relative to alocation (e.g., a retail location, restaurant, etc.) over a period oftime. Each observation of the user (e.g., point) on the timeline mayrepresent a point in time at which the first user was observed at thelocation. As depicted in the first timeline, the first user may, forexample, have been served advertising content (e.g., associated with thelocation) at an ad exposure time (e.g., time of ad exposure, t0, etc.).In some embodiments, a look-back period may include a period prior tothe ad exposure time. A look-forward period may include a period afterthe ad exposure time. In some embodiments, the look-forward period andlook-back period may include equal or different lengths/durations oftime.

In some embodiments, first behavior information (e.g., associated with auser profile) may include a comparison of a first user's natural visitrate and post-advertising exposure visit rate (e.g., after exposure tothe advertising content) to the location. A natural visit rate mayinclude a number/frequency of user visits to the location over thelook-back period. A post-exposure visit rate may include anumber/frequency of visits to the location over the look-forward periodafter exposure to the advertising content. The first behaviorinformation may include a difference (if any) between the first user'spost-exposure visit rate and the natural visit rate.

In various embodiments, a second timeline is shown depicting a seconduser's behavioral patterns relative to a same location over a period oftime. The second user in this case may not have been exposed toadvertising content related to the location. In some embodiments, alook-back period for the second user may include a period prior to apoint in time (e.g., a reference time). A look-forward period mayinclude a period after the point in time. In various embodiments, thepoint in time (e.g., reference time) may be equivalent to theadvertising exposure time (e.g., the same absolute time) at which thefirst user was exposed to the advertising content, another timedetermined based on the first and/or second user profile attributes, anarbitrary time, and/or any other time.

In some embodiments, the look-back period associated with the seconduser may be related to the look-back period associated with the firstuser. In one example, the two periods may span equivalent period(s) oftime, though not necessarily the exact same period(s). For example, thefirst look-back period may include a first week (e.g., the lastWednesday in December to the first Wednesday in January, etc.), and thesecond look-back period may include (e.g., the first Saturday inFebruary to the second Saturday in February). In another example, thefirst look-back period and second look-back period may span periods oftime of varying duration. In various embodiments, similar relationsmaybe exist between the first look-forward period and secondlook-forward period.

In various embodiments, the look-back period, look-back period,look-forward period, look-forward period may be determined/selectedbased on input from a user of the advertising effectiveness platform,attributes associated with the first/second user profiles, and/or otherparameters. In some embodiments, the look-back periods, and/orlook-forward periods, may be selected to account/adjust for naturalvisit patterns, seasonal visit patterns, events (e.g., weather events, asale at the location, etc.) associated with the location, and/or otherfactors that may influence/affect/skew the calculation of theadvertising effectiveness value.

By way of example with reference to the first user timeline, a firstuser may be observed (e.g., via a mobile device) at a restaurant threetimes during the look-back period (e.g., as indicated by the threepoints on the timeline during the look-back period). The look-backperiod may include a one-week period prior to an ad exposure time ofJan. 1, 2014. The first user may have been shown advertising contentrelated to the restaurant at the advertising exposure time (e.g., Jan.1, 2014). And during the look-forward period including the two-weekperiod after Jan. 1, 2014, the first user may be observed at therestaurant eight times. In this case, the first behavior information mayinclude a difference between the first user's frequency of visits to thelocation during the look-back period—three times per week—and the firstuser's visit frequency during the look-forward period—four times perweek. The first behavior information may include, for example, anincrease of one visit per week, a 33.3% increase in visits per week,etc.

As depicted, for example, in the second user timeline, a second user maybe observed at the restaurant (e.g., the same restaurant) four timesduring a second look-back period—the one-week period prior to Feb. 1,2014. The second user may also be observed at the restaurant five timesduring a second look-forward period—the two weeks after Feb. 1, 2014. Inthis case, the second behavior information may include a differencebetween the second user's visit frequency to the location during thefirst look-back period—four visits per week—and the second user's visitfrequency to the location during the second look-forward period -sixvisits over two weeks. The second behavior information may include, forexample, a decrease of one visit of per week, a 25% decrease in visitsper week, etc. In this case, the change in visit behavior after thereference time is negative (e.g., indicating a decrease). In certaincases, this negative value may be assumed to be the result from randombehavioral patterns of the second user, and may be changed to zeroindicating no change in behavior.

According to some embodiments, an advertising effectiveness value may becalculated based on the first behavior information and second behaviorinformation. In this case the advertising effectiveness value mayinclude a comparison between the first behavior information—an increasein one visit per week by the first user—and the second behaviorinformation—a decrease of one visit per week by the second user. In thiscase, the advertising effectiveness value may include and incrementaldifference (e.g., incremental lift) of two visits per week. This valuemay indicate that exposure/interaction with the advertising contentresulted in an increase visit frequency of two visits per week.

In one embodiment, two or more advertising effectiveness values may begenerated. In various embodiments, a group of users including similarattributes may be selected to determine an effectiveness/influence ofadvertising content (e.g., in driving users to a retail location). Forexample, an advertiser associated with a quick service restaurant (QSR)chain may seek to quantify the value of an adverting campaign in drivingfoot traffic a QSR location. A group of user profiles identified asregular QSR patrons (e.g., known to visit the QSR location twice perweek) may be selected. Within this group an exposed subgroup (e.g.,exposed audience) of user profiles that include an indication ofexposure to the advertising content may be identified. And a non-exposedsubgroup of user profiles may be identified. Advertising effectivenessvalues may be generated using the techniques discussed herein. Forexample, user profiles from the exposed subgroup may be paired tosimilar user profiles from the non-exposed group, behavior informationmay be determined (e.g., numbers/frequencies of visits to the QSRlocation before and/or after advertisement exposure), and advertisingeffectiveness values may be generated based on the behavior information.

In one embodiment, aggregate effectiveness value(s) may be generated. Invarious embodiments, multiple advertising effectiveness values may besummed, aggregated, added together and/or otherwise combined to generatean aggregate advertising effectiveness value (e.g., a locationconversion index). In various embodiments, an aggregate effectivenessvalue may include an advertising effectiveness value that has beenupdated based on other advertising effectiveness values. For example,two advertising effectiveness values may be merged/combined to generatea single advertising effectiveness value.

In various embodiments, advertising effectiveness values associated withany number of user profiles may be aggregated to generate the aggregateadvertising effectiveness value. An aggregate advertising effectivenessvalue may represent an increase, decrease, and/or lack of change in anumber of visits to retail location as a result of advertising contentserved to a defined group of users over a period of time. Continuingwith the above example, the advertising effectiveness values generatedbased on the comparisons of the user profiles in the exposed subgroupand the users in the non-exposed subgroup of regular QSR patrons may beaggregated. For example, advertising effectiveness values may begenerated for each user in the exposed subgroup and these values may beaggregated to generate an aggregate advertising effectiveness valueacross the group of regular QSR patrons. In one example, the aggregateadvertising effectiveness value may, for example, indicate that theadvertising campaign resulted in an increase of two visits per week peruser who received the advertisement. In another example, the aggregateadvertising effectiveness value may indicate a 25% increase in foottraffic to the QSR location over a defined period of time (e.g., oneweek before ad exposure compared to one week after ad exposure).

In various embodiments, advertising effectiveness values generated basedon a comparison of user profiles exposed to advertising content andrandomly-selected user profiles (e.g., not exposed to the ad content)may be included in an aggregate effectiveness value. For example,advertising effectiveness values may be generated based on comparisonsof user profiles included in the exposed subgroup of male frequent QSRpatrons to randomly-selected user profiles (e.g., not necessarily malefrequent QSR patrons). These advertising effectiveness values may beadded to an aggregate advertising effectiveness value, but may, forexample, be given less weight in the aggregation.

In one embodiment, an aggregate advertising effectiveness value may beadjusted. In various embodiments, an aggregate advertising effectivenessvalue may be scaled, normalized, and/or otherwise adjusted. For example,advertising effectiveness value(s) may be scaled to a value within arange of values (e.g., 0 to 100), percentage(s), and/or other value(s).

In various embodiments, advertising effectiveness values may includeadjustments for natural visit patterns, seasonal visit patterns, events,and/or other factors as a result of the matching processes (e.g.,propensity score matching), look-back period determinations,look-forward period determinations, and/or other processes discussedherein. In some embodiments, however, an aggregate advertisingeffectiveness value (e.g., generated based on one or more advertisingeffectiveness values) may be adjusted (e.g., post-calculation) toaccount for natural visit patterns, seasonal visit patterns, events(e.g., current events, weather, etc.), and/or other factors affectingvisit rates to a location. For example, an aggregate advertisingeffectiveness value reflecting ad campaign-driven visits to a retaillocation may be reduced to account for an increase in natural visitsover the holiday season.

In one embodiment, a digital advertisement associated with a locationmay be generated. In various embodiments, a digital advertisement mayinclude a coupon, a banner advertisement, a pop-up advertisement,embedded advertisement, and/or other promotional content associated witha location (e.g., aimed at driving foot traffic to the location). Forexample, a digital advertisement may include a coupon for a 20% discounton the purchase of a cup of coffee at a coffee shop.

In one embodiment, advertising effectiveness value(s) may be used toselect users to receive the digital advertisement. In variousembodiments, advertising effectiveness values may be used to select atype of user that would be most receptive to (e.g., most likelyinfluenced by) the digital advertisement. Continuing with the example,an advertising effectiveness value may have been previously generatedindicating that a coupon for a free muffin at the coffee shop resultedin an increased visit frequency of one visit per month among males,between 20-30 years old, with a median salary of $50,000 per year.Another advertising effectiveness value may have been generatedindicating that a coupon for a 15% discount on purchase of coffeeresulted in an increased visit frequency of two visits per week amongmales, between 40-50 years old, who regularly attend sporting events.Based on these advertising effectiveness values, user profilesassociated with males, between 40-50 years, who are likely to attendsporting events may be selected to receive the digital advertisement.

In one embodiment, a digital advertisement may be provided to mobiledevice(s) associated with the selected user profiles. In variousembodiments, providing digital advertisement to users in a group knownto respond favorably to similar advertisement content may increase thereturn on investment of a mobile advertising campaign.

Further examples and details can be found in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/295,067, filed Jun. 3, 2014 and entitled “MeasuringAdvertising Effectiveness”, the entire disclosures of which applicationis hereby incorporated herein by references.

In general, the users having similar or same profiles, includingdemographic profile data, behavioral profile data, psycho-graphicprofile data, purchase profile data, and/or location profile data, etc.,can be grouped as similar users. The similar users can be organized intotwo groups. One of the two groups is provided with a predeterminedcontent (e.g., an advertisement, an announcement, a notice, a TVprogram, a direct mail advertisement, etc.); and the other of the twogroup is not provided with the content. The subsequent user behaviors,such as location patterns, web visitation, service subscription, retailstore visitation, etc., can be compared between the groups to identifythe influence of the content. In some embodiments, the changes in theuser behaviors of the same users before and after the time of thepresentation of the content are identified; and the changes are comparedbetween the groups to identify the influence of the content.

In some instances, different portions of data used in the computing ofthe effect of a communication/event are assembled from differentdatabases controlled by different entities. For example, in determiningthe effect of an advertisement communication, or the event of presentingan advertisement in a media channel, such as television, the statuses ofusers receiving the communication and/or experiencing the event may betracked in the computing system of one entity; and the patterns ofvisitation to a particular location, such as a physical retail store ofa merchant promoted in the advertisement, may be tracked in thecomputing system of another entity. For privacy protections of itsusers, an entity in possession of personally identifiable information ofcertain users may be required to avoid disclosing the personallyidentifiable information to another entity during the integration of thedata for the computation of the effect on visitation patterns.

For example, a database controlled by a first party/entity contains thestatus data indicating whether nor not a user received the communicationand if so, the time of the communication to the user, while a separatedatabase controlled by a second party/entity contains the locationtracking data of the user.

One embodiment of the disclosure provides a data integration techniquethat allows the data from the separate databases to be combined for theevaluation of the effect of the communication/event on the locationvisitation pattern, while avoiding transmitting the status data acrossthe parties in a personally identifiable way.

In one solution, the first party initially transmits a set ofidentifiers of users to the second party without providing the statusdata. Each of the identifiers identifies a particular user in apersonally identifiable way (e.g., via a home address, a telephonenumber, an email address, a government issued identification number, aperson identification number shared between the first party and thesecond party). The second party extracts from its database the locationand attribute related data for the users individually identified by theset of identifiers of the user.

In some instances, the set of identifiers may include the identifiers ofrandom users that may not even receive services from the first party andthus the second party cannot tell from the set of identifiers which userreceives services from the first party and which user has received thecommunication (or has experienced the event) related to alocation/region.

For enhanced privacy protection, the location data identified to thefirst party individually for the user identifiers initially provided bythe first party can optionally be provided in anencrypted/hashed/obfuscated form such that the first party cannotdecrypt the location data associated with the individual useridentifiers. However, when the encrypted location data and attributesare returned to the second party (or a third party) in a non-personallyidentifiable way, the second party (or the third party) can decrypt themand use them in the evaluation of the influence on the visitationpatterns.

In the solution, after receiving the location data for the individualuser identifiers, the second party is configured to associate the statusdata of the individual users identified by the user identifiers with therespective location data for the individual users and then remove theirassociation with the user identifiers to de-personalize the combinedstatus data and the location data. The combined status and location dataassociates the status information and location information for each userindividually and anonymously. Each user may be identified by a separategroup of status information and location information, a random useridentifier, or another unique identifier (e.g., a row identifier of adata record) that is not associated in a personally identifiable way toany of the set of user identifiers. Thus, the combined status andlocation data is de-personalized such that a particular set of statusinformation and location information cannot be attributed to aparticular user identified by one of the user identifies.

In general, the location data provided by the second party includes datafor a plurality of data fields. Some of the data fields cannot beobfuscated by the first party in de-personalizing the combined statusand location data, such as the location visitation patterns. Some of thedata fields can be obfuscated by the first party, since these datafields are only used to find a match of users having similar profileattributes. Thus, the first party is configured in the solution toperform obfuscation operations on these data fields to prevent the datain these fields from being used to identify the user identifiers basedon their association with the user identifiers in the initial locationdata transmitted from the second party to the first party.

Obfuscation operations that do not affect the matching of fields of thesame values can be performed on the location data in the combined statusand location data provided from the first party to the second party. Forexample, the values in the data fields can be scaled, padded, hashed,and/or encrypted to prevent the use of the values as a key to reverselook up the user identifier from the knowledge of the first party in theindividual association between the location data and the useridentifiers. Further, data can be taken from their respective datafields in the location data and placed by the first party in the fieldsdifferent from their original fields in a way unknown to the secondparty to obfuscate the data. Furthermore, some of the data fields can becombined and/or transformed using one or more functions that map thesame set of data to the same result. Thus, the changed data value cannotbe used as a key to look up the user identifier, but can still be usedto identify users having the same data items in these fields.

FIG. 23 shows a system to combine the data from different databases tomeasure the influence of an event with privacy protection according toone embodiment. The system of FIG. 23 can be used to implement thesolution discussed above.

In FIG. 23, databases (401 and 403) are maintained by separate entitieshaving separate computer systems connected to the databases (401 and403) respectively. The status database (401) includes status data (427,. . . , 429) that shows the statuses of respective users with respect toan event (e.g., an advertisement, or exposure to an advertisementpresented in a television program). The users are identified by therespective user identifiers (421, . . . , 423).

For example, the event may correspond to the exposure of a user to apiece of information relevant to a predetermined region, such as anadvertisement presented to the user (e.g., via a television program)about a merchant having a retail store defined by a predeterminedgeographic boundary. The status data (427, . . . , 429) indicateswhether or not the individual users identified by the respective useridentifiers (421, . . . , 423) have exposure(s) to the advertisement andif so, the date and time of exposure(s)

In FIG. 23, the attribute database (403) includes attribute data (437, .. . , 439) includes the profile and location attributes of the usershaving the respective user identifiers (421, . . . , 423).

In FIG. 23, the system is configured to combine the data from the statusdatabase (401) and the attribute database (403) to determine effect ofthe event on the location patterns of the users, while protecting theprivacy of the users by avoiding identifying, from the computing systemof the status database (401) to the computing system of the attributedatabase (403), the individual association between the status data (427,. . . , 429) and the user identifiers (421, . . . , 423). In general,the computing system of the status database (401) is a computing systemof an entity operating the status database (401); and the computingsystem of the status database (401) may or may not be responsible fordirect operations on the status database (401). Similarly, the computingsystem of the attribute database (403) is generally a computing systemof an entity operating the attribute database (403), separate from theentity operating the status database (401); and the computing system ofthe attribute database (403) may or may not be responsible for directoperations on attribute database (403).

In FIG. 23, the user identifiers (421, . . . , 423, and 431, . . . ,433) include personally identifier information that can be used on itsown or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a singleperson, or to identify an individual in context, such as full name, homeaddress, phone number, email address, and/or login name, etc. Thus, auser identifier (e.g., 421) in the status database (401) can be mappedto a user identifier (e.g., 431) in the attribute database (403).

In FIG. 23, an identifier list (409) is transmitted from the computingsystem of the status database (401) to the computing system of theattribute database (403). The identifier list (409) includes usersidentifies (e.g., 421, . . . , 423) that match the respective users tothe computing system of the attribute database (403). However, no statusdata is provided with the identifier list (409) from the computingsystem of the status database (401) to the computing system of theattribute database (403).

The computing system of the attribute database (403) is configured toextract attributes (441, . . . , 443) from the attribute database (403)for users having the user identifiers (421, . . . , 423) communicatedvia the identifier list (409).

In some instances, to avoid disclosing the indication that a useridentified in the identifier list (409) has received services from thecomputing system of the status database (401) (e.g., as a subscriber ofthe computing system of the status database (401)), the identifier list(409) may include the user identifiers of random users who did notreceive services from the computing system of the status database (401)(e.g., non-subscribers).

In some instances, the identifier list (409) is transmitted from thecomputing system of the status database (401) to the computing system ofthe attribute database (403) with one or more parameters that can beused in extracting relevant attributes. For example, the identifier list(409) can be transmitted with an indication of a time instance of theadvertisement. The indication of the time instance allows the computingsystem of the attribute database (403) to organize the location patterndata into location patterns before the time instance and locationpatterns after the time instance and thus reduces the amount of data tobe transmitted in communication A (405).

In situations where different users may be exposed to the advertisementon different dates and/or times, multiple timestamps can be providedwith the identifier list. Further, different sets of timestamps can bespecified for different users. Some of the timestamps may not correspondto the actual time of a user receiving the advertisement and/or may beincluded for obfuscation (to avoid indication of which user has exposureand/or which user has enrolled for the service of the computing systemof the status database (401)).

The attributes (441, . . . , 443) provided in communication from thecomputing system of the attribute database (403) to the computing systemof the status database (401) can be encrypted/hashed/obfuscated to avoidrevealing the details of the attributes to the computing system of theattribute database (403).

In FIG. 23, based on the user identifiers (421, . . . , 423) provided inthe communication (405), the computing system of the status database(401) associates the status data (429, . . . , 427) of individual userswith the attribute data (445, . . . , 447) of the respective users andgenerates the communication (407) by removing the indication of the useridentifiers (e.g., 421) of the paired status data and attribute data.

For example, after pairing the status data (429) with the attribute data(445) for the user identifier (423), the computing system of the statusdatabase (401) removes the association between the user identifier (423)and the grouping of the status data (429) and the attribute data (445),indicating that the combined status data (429) and the attribute data(445) is for a distinct, anonymous user, separate from other anonymoususers in the communication (407). For example, after pairing the statusdata (427) with the attribute data (447) for the user identifier (421),the computing system of the status database (401) removes theassociation between the user identifier (421) and the grouping of thestatus data (427) and the attribute data (447), indicating that thegrouping of the status data (427) and the attribute data (447) is for adistinct, anonymous user, separate from other anonymous users in thecommunication (407). Thus, the status data (429, . . . , 427) and theattribute data (435, . . . , 447) are integrated for individual users atthe user level without revealing the individual association between theuser identifiers (e.g., 421, . . . , 423) and the respective status data(e.g., 427, . . . 429).

In FIG. 23, the attributes are provided in communication (407) in anorder different from the order of attributes in the identifier list(409). After removing some users, the number of users represented in thecommunication (407) can be less than the number of users represented inthe identifier list (409). The order of the users in the identifier list(409) can be adjusted in a way unknown to the computing system of theattribute database (403) to create the order of the users in thecommunication (407).

Further, the computing system of the status database (401) may performobfuscation operations on some of the attributes (e.g., 443) to generatethe attributes (e.g., 447) in the communication (407) that is sent fromthe computing system of the status database (401) for the analysis ofthe effect of the influence of the event on the location patterns ofusers.

In one embodiment, the attributes (441, . . . , 443) provided in thecommunication (405) includes two types of attributes: location patternattributes, and profile attributes. The location pattern attributes willbe further processed in analysis (411) to measure the influence of theevent; and the profile attributes are provided used in locating usershaving the same or similar profiles. The computing system of the statusdatabase (401) of one embodiment is configured to perform obfuscationoperations on the profile attributes without adjusting the locationpattern attributes, as illustrated in FIG. 24.

For example, the computing system of the attribute database (403), oranother system (e.g., a computing system of a third entity separatedfrom the entity operating the attribute database (403) and the entityoperating the status database (401)), decrypts the location patternattributes to perform the analysis (411) of the influence of the eventon the location patterns of the users to generate the result (413), bymatching first users having experienced the event with second usershaving similar/matching profile attributes but having not experiencedwith the event. The changes of the location patterns of the first usersbefore and after the event are compared with the corresponding changesof the location patterns of the corresponding second users having thesimilar/matching profile attributes and thus determine the influence ofthe event on the location patterns. For example, the methods of FIGS.17-22 to determine the influence of an event can be used.

FIG. 24 shows an operation to obfuscate attribute data for privacyprotection according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 24, the attributes are provided in communication (405) for aparticular user in a plurality of fields (A-B, P-Q). A communicationprotocol is established between the computing systems to indicate thatfields (A-B) cannot be obfuscated (e.g., for communicating the locationpattern attributes) and fields (P-Q) can be obfuscated (e.g., forcommunicating the profile attributes).

In generating the partially obfuscated attributes in communication(407), the computing system of the status database (401) copies theattributes in fields (A-B) from the incoming communication (405) to theoutgoing communication (407) without modification such that thecomputing apparatus can operate different fields (A-B) differently basedon the identities of the attributes. In some embodiments, thenon-obfuscated data fields (A-B) are combined (e.g.,encrypted/scrambled) by the computing system of the attribute database(403) as a single field to be returned for decryption/de-scrambling.

In generating the partially obfuscated attributes in communication(407), the computing system of the status database (401) maps theattributes in fields (P-Q) from the incoming communication (405) to theoutgoing communication (407) according to an attribute mapping scheme(465) that is unknown to the computing system of the attribute database(403). For example, an attribute Q (459) received in field Q in theincoming communication (405) may be placed instead in field P in theoutgoing communication (407). Thus, the placement of the attributes inthe outgoing communication (407) is scrambled from the placement of theattributes in the incoming communication (405). The scrambling operationprevents the use of the combinations of the attribute values as keys tolook up the user identifiers (421) from the incoming communication(405).

Operationally, the mapping (465) of the obfuscation operation mayinclude the combination of attributes from two or more fields in theincoming communication (405) into one field in the outgoingcommunication (407), splitting of an attribute from one fields in theincoming communication (405) into two or more fields in the outgoingcommunication (407), adding or subtracting a value to a field, scalingthe value of a field, normalizing the values of a field, hashing theattributes using a one way hash function, applying a predeterminedfunction to a field to transform its value, etc.

The obfuscation operation is performed in a way that is independent fromthe identities of the users having the attributes. Thus, two usershaving matching/similar profile attributes in the incoming communication(405) still have the matching/similar obfuscated profile attributes inthe incoming communication (407).

Preferably, the non-obfuscated attributes (e.g., 451-453 in fields A-B)have limited unique instances in the outgoing communication (407) suchthat a combination of the non-obfuscated attributes (e.g., 451-453 infields A-B) cannot be used as a key to look up a unique user identifierfrom the incoming communication (405).

For example, for each unique combination of values of the non-obfuscatedattributes in the outgoing communication (407), the computing system ofthe status attribute counts the number of user identifiers that have thesame unique combination of values in the incoming communication (405).If the counted number is larger than a threshold, the status data andattribute data corresponding to the unique combination of values arekept in the outgoing communication (407); otherwise, the status data andattribute data corresponding to the unique combination of values areremoved from the outgoing communication (407) to protect the privacy ofthe user having the user identifiers that can be looked up from theincoming communication (405) using the unique combination of values asthe key.

FIG. 25 shows a method to combine data from separate system to measure achange in location patterns according to one embodiment. For example,the method of FIG. 25 can be implemented in the system of FIG. 23 andoptionally use the operation illustrated in FIG. 24.

In FIG. 25, a computing system is configured to: store (471) a set ofcell identifiers for a plurality of geographical regions each havingpredefined geographical boundaries, each of the cell identifiersidentifying a cell that is determined to be within a region defined byone of the predefined geographical boundaries and stored in associationwith the region; convert (473) the coordinates of the locations of themobile devices into respective cell identifiers; determine (475)visitations of the mobile devices to the geographical regions as afunction of time based on searching the set of cell identifiers todetermine if the set has the respective cell identifiers; receive (477),from a separate device, a set of identifiers identifying the mobiledevices respectively; communicate (479), to the separate device,attributes of the mobile devices, including the visitations, inassociating with the identifiers respectively; communicate (481) back,from the separate device, status data associated with the attributes butdisassociated from the identifiers; identify (483), by the computingdevice from the communication, attributes of a first subset of themobile devices having a first status according to the status data andattributes of a second subset of the mobile devices having a secondstatus according to the status data, based on a determination that thefirst subset of the mobile devices and the second subset of the mobiledevices have similar patterns of visitation to the geographical regionsprior to a time period; and measure (485) a difference, between thefirst subset of the mobile devices and the second subset of the mobiledevices, in visitation patterns to the geographical regions after thetime period.

FIGS. 24 and 25 shows the communication techniques to preserve theprivacy of the users while integrating the attribute data and statusdata to evaluate the influence of an event or a piece of information onthe behavior pattern users based on the difference in changes of thebehavior patterns from before the event (or exposure to the information)to after the event (or exposure to the information). In the abovediscussed example, the behavior patterns are identified via visitationpatterns tracked via the mobile devices of the users. However, thebehavior patterns can be measured via other parameters, such astransaction frequency, transaction amount, purchase/sales amount orfrequency, website visitations, etc. Thus, the computation of theinfluence is not limited to the attributes for the change in locationpatterns. The communication technique can be used to integrate theattribute data and status data for the determination of the influencesmeasured from the changes in transaction frequency, transaction amount,purchase/sales amount or frequency, website visitations, etc. before andafter the event (or exposure to the information) in users having similarprofile attributes (e.g., demographic data, propensity data,psycho-graphic data).

FIG. 15 illustrates a data processing system according to oneembodiment. While FIG. 15 illustrates various components of a computersystem, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture ormanner of interconnecting the components. One embodiment may use othersystems that have fewer or more components than those shown in FIG. 15.

In FIG. 15, the data processing system (200) includes an inter-connect(201) (e.g., bus and system core logic), which interconnects one or moremicroprocessors (203) and memory (204). The microprocessor (203) iscoupled to cache memory (209) in the example of FIG. 15.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (201) interconnects themicroprocessor(s) (203) and the memory (204) together and alsointerconnects them to input/output (I/O) device(s) (205) via I/Ocontroller(s) (207). I/O devices (205) may include a display deviceand/or peripheral devices, such as mice, keyboards, modems, networkinterfaces, printers, scanners, video cameras and other devices known inthe art. In one embodiment, when the data processing system is a serversystem, some of the I/O devices (205), such as touch screens, printers,scanners, mice, and/or keyboards, are optional.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (201) includes one or more busesconnected to one another through various bridges, controllers and/oradapters. In one embodiment the I/O controllers (207) include a USB(Universal Serial Bus) adapter for controlling USB peripherals, and/oran IEEE-1394 bus adapter for controlling IEEE-1394 peripherals.

In one embodiment, the memory (204) includes one or more of: ROM (ReadOnly Memory), volatile RAM (Random Access Memory), and non-volatilememory, such as hard drive, flash memory, etc.

Volatile RAM is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. Non-volatile memory is typically a magnetic hard drive, amagnetic optical drive, an optical drive (e.g., a DVD RAM), or othertype of memory system which maintains data even after power is removedfrom the system. The non-volatile memory may also be a random accessmemory.

The non-volatile memory can be a local device coupled directly to therest of the components in the data processing system. A non-volatilememory that is remote from the system, such as a network storage devicecoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface, can also be used.

In this description, some functions and operations are described asbeing performed by or caused by software code to simplify description.However, such expressions are also used to specify that the functionsresult from execution of the code/instructions by a processor, such as amicroprocessor.

Alternatively, or in combination, the functions and operations asdescribed here can be implemented using special purpose circuitry, withor without software instructions, such as using Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC) or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).Embodiments can be implemented using hardwired circuitry withoutsoftware instructions, or in combination with software instructions.Thus, the techniques are limited neither to any specific combination ofhardware circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for theinstructions executed by the data processing system.

While one embodiment can be implemented in fully functioning computersand computer systems, various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a computing product in a variety of forms and are capableof being applied regardless of the particular type of machine orcomputer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

At least some aspects disclosed can be embodied, at least in part, insoftware. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computersystem or other data processing system in response to its processor,such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions containedin a memory, such as ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory, cache or aremote storage device.

Routines executed to implement the embodiments may be implemented aspart of an operating system or a specific application, component,program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as“computer programs.” The computer programs typically include one or moreinstructions set at various times in various memory and storage devicesin a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operationsnecessary to execute elements involving the various aspects.

A machine readable medium can be used to store software and data whichwhen executed by a data processing system causes the system to performvarious methods. The executable software and data may be stored invarious places including for example ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatilememory and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data may be storedin any one of these storage devices. Further, the data and instructionscan be obtained from centralized servers or peer to peer networks.Different portions of the data and instructions can be obtained fromdifferent centralized servers and/or peer to peer networks at differenttimes and in different communication sessions or in a same communicationsession. The data and instructions can be obtained in entirety prior tothe execution of the applications. Alternatively, portions of the dataand instructions can be obtained dynamically, just in time, when neededfor execution. Thus, it is not required that the data and instructionsbe on a machine readable medium in entirety at a particular instance oftime.

Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited torecordable and non-recordable type media such as volatile andnon-volatile memory devices, read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), flash memory devices, floppy and other removable disks,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media (e.g., Compact DiskRead-Only Memory (CD ROM), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), etc.), amongothers. The computer-readable media may store the instructions.

The instructions may also be embodied in digital and analogcommunication links for electrical, optical, acoustical or other formsof propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, digitalsignals, etc. However, propagated signals, such as carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc. are not tangible machinereadable medium and are not configured to store instructions.

In general, a machine readable medium includes any mechanism thatprovides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a formaccessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network device, personaldigital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one ormore processors, etc.).

In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combinationwith software instructions to implement the techniques. Thus, thetechniques are neither limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructionsexecuted by the data processing system.

The description and drawings are illustrative and are not to beconstrued as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding. However, in certain instances, wellknown or conventional details are not described in order to avoidobscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in thepresent disclosure are not necessarily references to the sameembodiment; and, such references mean at least one.

The use of headings herein is merely provided for ease of reference, andshall not be interpreted in any way to limit this disclosure or thefollowing claims.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment,and are not necessarily all referring to separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, variousfeatures are described which may be exhibited by one embodiment and notby others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may berequirements for one embodiment but not other embodiments. Unlessexcluded by explicit description and/or apparent incompatibility, anycombination of various features described in this description is alsoincluded here. For example, the features described above in connectionwith “in one embodiment” or “in some embodiments” can be all optionallyincluded in one implementation, except where the dependency of certainfeatures on other features, as apparent from the description, may limitthe options of excluding selected features from the implementation, andincompatibility of certain features with other features, as apparentfrom the description, may limit the options of including selectedfeatures together in the implementation.

In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope as set forth in the following claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented in a computing device, themethod comprising: storing, in the computing device, a set of cellidentifiers for a plurality of geographical regions each havingpredefined geographical boundaries, each of the cell identifiersidentifying a cell that is determined to be within a region defined byone of the predefined geographical boundaries and stored in associationwith the region; receiving coordinates of locations of a plurality ofmobile devices as a function of time; computing, by the computingdevice, visitation data representing visitations of the mobile devicesto the geographical regions as a function of time by: converting thecoordinates of the locations of the mobile devices into respective cellidentifiers; and searching, in the set of cell identifiers, therespective cell identifiers to determine respective geographical regionsthat contain the locations of the mobile devices corresponding to therespective cell identifiers; receiving, by the computing device from aseparate device, a set of mobile device identifiers; retrieving, by thecomputing device and from the visitation data of the plurality of mobiledevices, visitation data of selected mobile devices that are identifiedby the set of mobile device identifiers; transmitting, by the computingdevice to the separate device, a first data set associating thevisitation data of the selected mobile devices with respective mobiledevice identifiers of the selected mobile devices, the transmitting ofthe first data set causing the separate device to generate a second dataset by: associating status data of the selected mobile devices with thevisitation data of the selected mobile devices; and disassociating themobile device identifiers of the selected mobile devices from the statusdata provided in the second data; receiving, by the computing devicefrom the separate device, the second data set containing the status dataof the selected mobile devices and the visitation data of the mobiledevices but having no indication of respective association between themobile device identifiers of the selected mobile devices and the statusdata of the selected mobile devices; identifying, by the computingdevice from the second data set: visitation data of a first subset ofthe selected mobile devices having a first status identified by thestatus data; and visitation data of a second subset of the selectedmobile devices having a second status identified by the status data,wherein the first and second subsets of mobile devices have matchingpatterns of visitation to the geographical regions prior to a timeperiod; and measuring, by the computing device, a difference, betweenthe first subset of the selected mobile devices and the second subset ofthe selected mobile devices, in visitation patterns to the geographicalregions after the time period.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinconverting of each respective set of coordinates of the locations of thefirst mobile device into a respective cell identifier includes:generating two integers from longitude and latitude coordinates of therespective set of coordinates according to a precision level; andcombining the two integers into the respective cell identifier withoutusing a floating point number computation.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein a cell identified by the respective cell identifier is arectangle area in a longitude latitude space of locations on the earth;a size of the cell identified by the respective cell identifier isdefined by the respective cell identifier; and longitude and latitudecoordinates of a corner of the cell identified by the respective cellidentifier are defined by the respective cell identifier.
 4. The methodof claim 2, wherein if the respective cell identifier is in the set ofcell identifiers stored for a particular geographical region, a locationidentified by the respective set of coordinates is determined to bewithin the particular geographical region; and if the respective cellidentifier is not in the set of cell identifiers stored for theparticular geographical region, the location identified by therespective set of coordinates is determined to be outside of theparticular geographical region.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein a cellidentified by the respective cell identifier is a square area in alongitude latitude space of locations on the earth; cells identified bythe set of cell identifiers have a plurality of cell sizes correspondingto a plurality of predetermined cell resolution levels; and each cellresolution level of the plurality of predetermined cell resolutionlevels corresponds to a precision represented by a predetermined digitafter the decimal point in longitude and latitude coordinates oflocations on the earth.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein associationbetween the status data and the visitation data provided in the seconddata set is insufficient for the computing device to associate thestatus data individually with mobile device identifiers of the selectedmobile devices.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second data setcontains no personally identifiable information
 8. A computing device,comprising: at least one microprocessor; and memory storing instructionsconfigured to instruct the at least one microprocessor to: receive, inthe computing device, locations of a plurality of mobile devices as afunction of time; compute, by the computing device from the locations,visitation data representing visitations of the mobile devices to apredetermined geographical region as a function of time; receive, by thecomputing device from a separate device, a set of mobile deviceidentifiers; retrieve, by the computing device and from the visitationdata of the plurality of mobile devices, visitation data of selectedmobile devices that are identified by the set of mobile deviceidentifiers; transmit, by the computing device to the separate device, afirst data set associating the visitation data of the selected mobiledevices with respective mobile device identifiers of the selected mobiledevices, the first data set causing the separate device to generate asecond data set by: associating status data of the selected mobiledevices with the visitation data of the selected mobile devices; anddisassociating the mobile device identifiers of the selected mobiledevices from the status data provided in the second data; receive, bythe computing device from the separate device, the second data setcontaining the status data of the selected mobile devices and thevisitation data of the mobile devices but having no indication ofindividual associations between the mobile device identifiers of theselected mobile devices and the status data of the selected mobiledevices; identify, by the computing device from the second data set:visitation data of a first subset of the selected mobile devices havinga first status identified by the status data; and visitation data of asecond subset of the selected mobile devices having a second statusidentified by the status data, wherein the first and second subsets ofmobile devices have matching patterns of visitation to the predeterminedgeographical region prior to a time period; and measure, by thecomputing device, a difference, between the first subset of the selectedmobile devices and the second subset of the selected mobile devices, invisitation patterns to the predetermined geographical region after thetime period.
 9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the memoryfurther stores a set of cell identifiers for a plurality ofpredetermined geographical regions each having predefined geographicalboundaries, each of the cell identifiers identifying a cell that isdetermined to be within a respective region defined by one of thepredetermined geographical boundaries and stored in association with therespective region; and the instructions configured to instruct the atleast one microprocessor to compute visitation data from coordinates ofthe locations by: converting the coordinates of the locations intorespective cell identifiers; and searching, in the set of cellidentifiers, the respective cell identifiers to determine respectivegeographical regions that contain the locations of the mobile devicescorresponding to the respective cell identifiers.
 10. The computingdevice of claim 8, wherein the first status, as associated with thefirst subset, indicates that mobile devices in the first subset areassociated with an event; and the second status, as associated with thesecond subset, indicates that mobile devices in the second subset arenot associated with the event.
 11. The computing device of claim 10,wherein the time period is before the event.
 12. The computing device ofclaim 11, wherein the difference as measured represents a measurement ofinfluence of the event.
 13. The computing device of claim 12, whereinthe event includes transmitting of information relevant to thepredetermined geographical region to mobile devices.
 14. The computingdevice of claim 11, wherein the first and second subsets of mobiledevices are identified to have matching first profile attributes; andthe first data set includes the first profile attributes.
 15. Thecomputing device of claim 14, wherein the visitation data provided inthe first data set is in an encrypted form, decryptable by the computingdevice but not by the separate device; and the visitation data providedin the first data set is returned to the computing device in the seconddata set without changes.
 16. A non-transitory computer storage mediumstoring instructions configured to instruct a computing device toperform a method, the method comprising: transmitting, by the computingdevice to a separate device, a set of mobile device identifiers to causethe separate device to: retrieve, visitation data of selected mobiledevices that are identified by the set of mobile device identifiers, thevisitation data representing visitations of the selected mobile devicesto a predetermined geographical region as a function of time; andtransmit, to the computing device, a first data set associating thevisitation data of the selected mobile devices with respective mobiledevice identifiers of the selected mobile devices; receiving, in thecomputing device from the separate device, the first data set;generating, by the computing device from the first data set, a seconddata set by: associating status data of the selected mobile devices withthe visitation data of the selected mobile devices; and disassociatingthe mobile device identifiers of the selected mobile devices from thestatus data provided in the second data; transmitting, by the computingdevice to the separate device, the second data set containing the statusdata of the selected mobile devices and the visitation data of themobile devices but having no indication of respective associationbetween the mobile device identifiers of the selected mobile devices andthe status data of the selected mobile devices, the second data setcausing the separate device to: identify, from the second data set:visitation data of a first subset of the selected mobile devices havinga first status identified by the status data; and visitation data of asecond subset of the selected mobile devices having a second statusidentified by the status data, wherein the first and second subsets ofmobile devices have matching patterns of visitation to the predeterminedgeographical region prior to a time period; and measure a difference,between the first subset of the selected mobile devices and the secondsubset of the selected mobile devices, in visitation patterns to thepredetermined geographical region after the time period; and receiving,by the computing device, the difference measured by the separate device.17. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 16, wherein thefirst and second subsets of mobile devices are identified to havematching first profile attributes; and the first data set includes thefirst profile attributes; and the instructions configured to instructthe computing device to: computing second profile attributes from thefirst profile attributes; replacing the first profile attributesprovided in the first data set with the second profile attributes ingenerating the second data set.
 18. The non-transitory computer storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the first and second subsets of mobiledevices are identified to have matching first profile attributes basedon matching the second profile attributes.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer storage medium of claim 17, wherein the second profileattributes are computed from the first profile attributes in a wayunknown to the separate device.
 20. The non-transitory computer storagemedium of claim 16, wherein the first status, as associated with thefirst subset, indicates that mobile devices in the first subset areassociated with an event; the second status, as associated with thesecond subset, indicates that mobile devices in the second subset arenot associated with the event; and the difference as measured representsa measurement of influence of the event.